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LIBEETY AND LA 



OUTLINES OF A NEW SYSTEM FOR THE OR- 
GANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF 
FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 



bkitto:n^ a. hill. 



SECOND EDITION, BE VISED AND GBEATLY ENLABGED. 



ST. LOUIS: 
G. I. JONES AND COMPANY 

1880. 



r ^ / 



T 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1880, by 

BRITTON A, HILL, 
In tlie Oiflce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PEEFACE TO THE FIEST EDITIOI^. 



In the course of thirty-five years' practice of the law, I have had many 
opportunities to observe the operations of our Federative form of govern- 
ment, and of our different State constitutions and laws, upon the welfare, 
rights, and liberties of the citizens for whose benefit they were ordained and 
enacted. 

A careful study has convinced me that the main danger to the permanence 
of our Federative republican institutions lies, firstly, in an originally defi- 
cient machinery of State and Federal organization; and, secondly, in a 
misconception on the part of our governments, State and Federal, of their 
full duties under the law. To the former defects we owe the outbreak of 
the late war, which, under a properly constructed machinery of State and 
Federative governments, would never have occurred; to the latter we owe 
the growth of those powerful monopolies that, in conjunction with ignorance 
and impurity, — alternately supporting and deriving support from these, — 
threaten every form of liberty that has grown dear to us. 

The demoralization consequent upon the late war has hastened the general 
recognition of this latter defect in our political organization, by developing 
the powers of those monopolies in our midst to an extent which makes the 
danger threatened by them directly perceptible to every citizen. 

It would have been useless at any previous period in our history to expose 
these sores on our political body and prescribe their cure. But I think the 
time has come now when the minds of the people are ripe for a thorough 
reorganization of our State and Federative governments, leaving the grand 
idea of their founders untouched in the main, but supplying the elements 
that are needed in order to remove the disorders which must otherwise under- 
mine their life. 

It may be objected that it is too bold a task to sketch even the mere outlines 
of such an organization, and I readily concede that no higher one can engage 
the mind of man, than to delineate such a plan through all its features. State, 
Federal, and International. Nor can I say anything in deprecation, except 
that the thought of this work has engaged the best part of my life, and 
accompanied me throughout all my experience of legal practice and a careful 
study of civilizations, of hygiene, and past and contemporary history. 

If, however, I fail in presenting such a plan in its completeness of organi- 
zation under constitutional and codified systems of laws, I can only hope 

(iii) 



VI INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

Against the hierarchial-caste element, which overthrew the Mosaic fabric 
of government, we, under our Constitution, which recognizes no form of 
religion of any kind, but leaves each persjon to worship God according to the 
dictates of his own conscience, need not fear nor legislate ; but the despotism 
of any part of the governmental power, be it the legislative, the executive, 
the judicial, or merely the despotism of a majority under unconstitutional 
and unjust laws, must certainly be met by the most effective checks. The 
deadly rule of impurity, ignorance, and vice we must abolish altogether; 
and we must crush the old and new tyrannies, that are growing up in our 
midst, and which in all free States and cities have, at all times and every- 
where, in the Greek as well as in the Italian republics, been most fatal, 
because most insidious, — the tyrannies of money-power, of monopolies, and 
of class legislation. 

No State of ancient or modern times has ever made this its definite aim 
and object, and the neglect to rise to this high and truly rational view of the 
purpose of government sufficiently accounts for the numberless disheartening 
failures. If at times great thinkei's, like Plato, Aristotle, and Confucius in 
the old world, and Fichte, Hegel, and others in the modern world, have tried 
to grasp this problem, at least theoretically, the result has been in the former 
cases simply a collection of idealistic dogmatic notions, having no connection 
with the actual relation between men under a government of law ; and in the 
case of the latter, an arbitrary vindication of existing forms, without regard 
to their inherent justice or sufficiency. Unsuccessful as have been the great 
legislators of antiquity, the philosophers that should have pointed out the 
defects in their legislation, and the remedies, only wandered still farther 
astray. 

The problem now submitted to American statesmen is to discover how to 
perfect the wise creation of our great legislators, — of Washington, Jeffer- 
son, Adams, Henry, Madison, Franklin, Paine, Hamilton, and others, — by 
adding to it all that a strictly philosophical comprehension of their work may 
demand, regardless of any traditional superstition that may have influenced 
them in the construction of our form of government. 

In the present work I purpose to make an attempt in this direction; so 
that, by removing existing evils and abuses, they may successfully withstand 
all the dangers of the future. I do this without prejudice or favor, submit- 
ting the needed reforms to the people for their examination and amendment. 

In the present book, having first very briefly criticized the historical forms 
of government of previous times, so far as they have any bearing upon ours 
and teach us the dangers that threaten us, I proceed to announce and justify 
the true fundamental principles of a State organization generally, and by 
their analysis to apply them to the actual legislation needed. 

Extending this application to the threefold function of men, I show how a 
representative government that intends to realize its purpose to its full 
extent must establish by positive legislation, first, a complete SJ^stem of sani- 
tary laws, to protect the bodies of its citizens against all impurities and 
disease, the breeders of misery and crime ; second, a complete system of edu- 



INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION. Vll 

cation, exteudiug to every function of tlie mind and body, to protect tlie intel- 
lectual culture of its citizens against the evil influences of ignorance and 
superstition in all forms, and against pauperism, by providing each one with 
the means of making a livelihood; and, third, a complete system of intercom- 
munication between men, whereby to take from out of the despotic influence of 
money, and all other monopolies, the teriible power wiiich they so long have 
wielded to oppress the people, and to exercise that power, through a State 
organization and federation, for the benefit, not for the injuiy, of the people. 

In this work I purpose to develop the application of those fundamental 
principles as requiring, for the purpose of securing to all men immunity from 
the unlawful interference of others, first, a code of laws and a constitution 
for each State ; second, a political constitution for the federative republic of 
all the States ; and, third, an international constitution for all the States of the 
world, as they may gradually, and one after another, see the wisdom of adopt- 
ing such a legal international form of government, if it be practicable, as I 
believe it to be. 

While the code of laws will point out the civil and criminal legislation 
needed, the constitution will be shown to demand a synthetical form, wherein 
alone the double requirement of all government — (1) that it should have 
absolute power to carry out all its purposes and laws for the good and happi- 
ness of all, and (2) that it should be absolutely checked in the exercise of 
that povk'er whenever attempted to be wielded in an unjust and improper 
way — can (3) be united in its character of a federative republic. This 
triune characteristic, entering all the functions of the State organization, 
will necessarily also be applied to them, separating the whole organization 
primarily into legislative, judicial, and executive departments. 

Thus, each person may become the architect of Ms own fortunes, under the 
wise universal protection and aid of a government of law, having one com- 
mon object : the permanent good and happiness of each citizen ; and the people 
may come to regard the State as a friend, and the rule of law as the only 
safeguard for the preservation of liberty under the forms of representative 
federative systems of government. 

In the organization of the judicial department of the Federal republic^ 
I propose to prevent future wars between the States, and restore all the 
States to a just and equal sovereignty under the law, by organizing as a per- 
manent safeguard an interstate national judicial tribunal, whose functions 
shall be to determine all controversies between the federative States, between 
one or more States and the Federal government, and betAveen the citizens of 
any State and Federal or State governments ; in which court any State or 
the Federal government may be sued, and suffer judgment by due course of 
law or equity. 

Two other Federal judicial tribunals, of separate, distinct jurisdictions over 
all other causes and proceedings provided for iu the code of the Federative 
government, should be organized, with an appeal in important causes to the 
Supreme Interstate National Court. 

I shall, finally, recommend the organization, by the consent of several or all 



VIU INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

■of the civilized nations of tlie world, of an international judicial tribunal for 
the legal settlement of all controversies between States, nations, kingdoms, 
and empires; providing for the selection of a judicial officer from each nation 
that enters this international federation, and to form a court to settle all 
disputes and controversies between nations; to render judgment on trial 
Ibefore this international court; and to regulate and adjust all cases of con- 
ti'oversies between the same parties in the interchange of moneyed values, 
and the settlement of balances between all parts of the said intei'national 
federation, by the organization of an international clearing-house under the 
jurisdiction and control of such court. 

Thus, from the lowest function of government, — to provide for the direct 
security and sanitary welfare of each citizen, — my work will trace its duties 
to the highest in the creation of an international court, which may remove all 
just causes of war between the federated nations, and realize the common 
wish of all good men by the maintenance of universal peace. 

In this age, Avhen the forces of heat and electricity, manifested in the tele- 
graph and the steam-power, have brought the people of the world into such 
near contact and communication with each other that the welfare of each 
individual is more intimately connected with that of his fellow-men than ever 
Ibefore; when even the locked-up civilization of Japan opens itself to the 
influence of our own, and seeks to establish our own imperfect systems of 
law, of education, and of money of divers kinds: it is clearly our duty to 
raise our energies to a level with the spirit of the age, and discover, if we 
can, a truly universal system of federative government, under wise, equal, 
just, harmonious, and all-embracing laws, that shall be applicable to all races, 
nations, castes, and men, that may be subjected to its influence, and which 
may effectually secure to one and all, for all time to come, the greatest good, 
happiness, morality, wisdom, and perfection that humanity is capable of 
attaining. 



PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITIO]^^. 



It is now seven years since the First Edition of " Liberty and Law under 
Federative Government " was published ; and so generous lias been its recep- 
tion by the public, as evidenced by numerous changes in our governmental 
policy since its publication, — changes which I had therein suggested as 
reforms required for the puriiication and perpetuation of our republican 
iorm of government, — that I have been encouraged to give to the public a 
Second Edition, greatly enlarged, and more fully carrying out the purpose 
, which I had in view when I first undertook the work. 

It must noAV have become far more clearly and generally manifest than it 
-was even seven years ago, that the entire organization of our legislative, 
executive, and judicial departments of government must be radically re- 
modelled and i-eformed, if we would save for ourselves and our posterity 
the rights and liberties which our forefathei's sought to secure for us, but 
which unchecked corruption in every branch of the State and Federal govern- 
ments, rapacious corporations, fostering and fostered by that corruption, have 
already swallowed up in great part, and now threaten to devour altogether. 

Our Federal Constitution was adopted, and, indeed, our whole form of 
government was organized for the purpose of securing to each citizen life, 
liberty, property, and equality of rights, through a representative republic. 
The people were no longer to be plundered, down-trodden, and enslaved for 
the benefit of a king and a few nobles ; but were to govern themselves, by 
themselves, and for themselves. 

This object, it must be confessed, has been realized beyond the most san- 
guine expectation, and to tlie astonishment especially of the outside world, 
-which had prophesied that a republic was a chimera, — that only kings, or at 
the best, an aristocracy, could govern the masses of mankind, and that those 
masses could never lie brought to govern themselves. 

But a new form of despotism has arisen since the beginning of this century, 
a despotism of which the founders of our government had not, and could 
not have had any adequate conception, and against which they therefore 
did not make any provision. This is the despotism of chartered corporations 
and other forms of money-monopolies, by which the people have since been 
as insidiously plundered as they were publicly plundered in former times by 
the claimants of God-given and hereditary prerogatives. And here I may as 
well revert to the legal power claimed by corporations. It is held, and 
perhaps justly held, that a " State " granting a perpetual charter to a corpo- 

(ix) 



X PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

ration cannot repeal that charter unless some misuser or default has been 
made by the corporation. The ground taken is, that the United States Con- 
stitution forbids any State from passing new laws invalidating contracts; 
and that a charter granted by a State is in the nature of a contract, and 
therefore cannot be repealed under the provision of the Federal Constitution. 
Now, leaving the latter assertion undisputed, — since I cannot well argue 
the constitutional issue here, — it is very clear, that a charter granted by 
Congress is repealable by Congress, and is not a contract within the meaning 
of the Federal Constitution. Congress has quite as much right to annul 
the charters granted to the Pacific Railroad Companies as the British Parlia- 
ment has to extinguish any public corporation to which it has given legal 
existence. The application of this principle will appear more clearly in the 
Second Part of this work, where I speak of public highways. I may mention 
here, however, that even a State of a federative republic cannot be barred by 
any legislative enactment which would deprive it of the power to annul per- 
petual charters. The legislature of a State, which is elected every one, or 
two, or four years comes to have the power to make all the people who 
elected them, slaves of any one or more corporations, simply by means of a 
charter granted in perpetuity. 

The greater part of this work deals with the problem how effectually to 
eradicate this evil and provide against its reappearance, restoring to the 
people their lost rights and liberties, and, so far as possible, their stolen 
property. These objects can be attained only, as I shall show, by a radical 
reconstruction of the whole government, — State, Federal, and municipal ; and 
since our present State and National Constitutions have not, as we have seen, 
provided against this new form of a money and corporation despotism, the 
first essential step to be taken is to call a general national convention for the 
purpose of framing a new Federal Constitution, that shall effectively termi- 
nate all existing Federal monopolies aiid prevent for the future the growth of 
similar polypi, and kill off the possibility of that political corruption which 
was prolific enough to engender these monsters and provide them with the 
food which has swelled them to their present enormous dimensions ; their 
blood-sucking arms stretching in every ^direction from the shores of the 
Atlantic to those of the Pacific Ocean, and from Alaska to the Rio Grande del 
Norte. 

So far as this new Federal Constitution will necessitate changes in the form 
of our government, that subject is discussed in those chapters of the First 
Part of this work that bear the keading, " General Principles of a Federative 
Government." Those changes involve the following main points: — 

1. A thorough reconstruction of the legislative department, extending its 
powers vastly in many respects, so as to enable the government to repossess 
itself of the usurped powers of corporations and monopolies, and manage them 
in the future for the benefit of the people ; but, on the other hand, so tying its 
hands by constitutional limitations and provisions of criminal prosecution for 
official malfeasance, that this most disgraceful feature of American politics 
may be forever wiped out from the future pages of our history. This should 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XI 

include a constitutional provision confining each session to a specified tei'm, — 
say two or three months, — so that the real business of the session may 
not be left to drag over until the very last days of the term ; and, for the same 
reason, each committee to v^rhich a bill is referred should be constitutionally 
required to definitely report within at least fourteen days. 

2. A thorough change in the organization of our judiciary, which shall 
effectually check that tendency towaixls judicial despotism and corruption 
which of late years has assumed formidable dimensions, and, if allowed to 
develop itself, will of itself put an end to our free institutions, however pure 
the other departments may be. 

3. A subdivision of our general Federal Union into five parts, each such 
part embracing a certain number of States, or organized on the same princi- 
ple as our general Federal Union, —i.e., with a separate congress, judiciary, 
and executive. 

a. The five congresses of these five sub-Unions to meet, after the close of 
their respective sessions, in one general congress, forming the legislative 
department of the whole Federal Union. 

b. Tlie five executives to choose from their midst, at each such general 
congressional session, a presiding oflicer, who shall then be president of the 
whole Fedei'al Union for the ensuing j-ear ; but his power of appointment to 
be limited to diplomatic and consular offices. All other Federal oflicials to 
be elected. 

c. The five judiciaries of the five sub-Unions to constitute, as will be ex- 
plained hereafter, an Interstate National Court, which will relieve the present 
United States Supreme Coui't of a large share of its labors. That present 
Supreme Court, however, to remain, with its collateral branches, substantially 
as at present. 

4. A general codification of laws ; whicli involves, of course, the abolition 
of the common law in the whole Federal Union and each of the separate 
States. 

So far as the new Federal Constitution will necessitate changes in the nature 
of our governmental institutions, that subject is discussed in those chapters 
of the First Part that are headed " Public Hygiene " and " Public Education," 
and those chapters of the Second Part that are classified under the general 
heading, "Public Intercommunication." 



Of course, my book has not been without its share of adverse criticism ; 
mainly, I suppose, because it did- not confine itself to the representation of 
any single grievance under wliicli the people suffer, but gave expression to a 
great number of them, — those that were most prominent, — in a systematic 
form. This led persons Avho, perhaps, suffered specially from one kind of 
injustice or governmental neglect to applaud heartily those particular parts 
of my book which exposed their own grievances, and at the same time to 
look with disfavor upon other parts, in which they were not immediately 
Interested, or to which their interests were adverse. 



XU PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 

I shall now proceed to enumei'ate and controvert the chief objections of 
fair-minded writers, that have come to my notice. 

These objections maybe classified under two general heads: First, objec- 
tions to the fundamental principles of the work; second, objections to the 
special forms proposed in it. 

In this preface to the second edition I shall confine myself to controverting 
the first class of objections, as a reply to the second class will occur in the 
course of the work, in their separate order. 

The chief objection raised against the fundamental principles of my book 
is, that I advocate in it the establishment of a "paternal government," — a 
form of government altogether at variance with our existing republican 
institutions and traditions. It is said that my proposed reforms would 
involve too much government, and various ancient maxims are quoted to the 
effect that "the least government is the best," etc. 

Now, I might readily grant the correctness of the principle in the abstract, 
though I hold it to be a very faulty definition of a best government, and might 
yet contend that in its practical application it is subject to constant modifi- 
cation by existing circumstances. The real meaning of that principle is, 
indeed, simply this : that government is an institution, or contrivance, or 
agency whereby to secure to each individual member of a Commonwealth 
the utmost possible freedom compatible with the freedom of all other indi- 
vidual members of the same Commonwealth, without ever transgressing, or 
being able to transgress that, its only and exclusive prerogative. 

That the least government cannot realize this object has been, I think, con- 
clusively established by me in this work. It may answer for a savage tribe ; not 
for civilized communities. There is, no doubt, in every upgrowing commu- 
nity a time when it is of paramount necessity to confine governmental func- 
tions within the narrowest possible limits; but as civilization progresses, 
population increases, and the great modern features of society, commerce 
and industry, are developed, the regulating power of that society — the gov- 
ernment — must correspondingly outstep its original limits. Circumstances of 
time, space, and number come here to exercise their influence and demand 
practical consideration. Even as the amount of money requisite for the cir- 
culation of a country is determined not only by the number of its inhabitants, 
and the necessities of their business enterprises, but also by the extent of its 
territory and the distribution of its population over that territory, so the 
requisite legislation and constitutional limitations for a nation depend to a 
great extent upon the size of the districts wherein the people are congregated. 
A form of government Avhich may be perfectly adequate to secure the purpose 
of its organization — that is, the protection of the rights of each individual — 
for a sparsely distributed community may, nay, is most likely to be, very 
insufiicient for an extensive and densely populated State ; and the least gov- 
ernment requisite for the administration of a large city may, on the other 
hand, be an extremely cumbersome, useless, and tyrannical piece of machinery 
for the administration of justice in a ncAvly settled territory. Thus, a system 
of government that may be altogether too loose and inadequate for a city 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITIOiSf. XUl 

like New York, may be an intolerable interference with individual freedom if 
applied to a State like Colorado, or to Territories like Nevada, Dakota, and 
Montana. The citj* of New York very properly arrests the man who lies 
down to sleep on its public walks, and takes him to a lodging at the police- 
station ; the State of Colorado would commit an act of insufferable injustice 
were it to arrest and incarcerate the tramp who laid down to rest on the side 
of one of its public highways. Still, there is no qualitative distinction in the 
offence in either case. But that which constitutes the act an offence in the 
first case, and makes it perfectly innocent in the other case, is simply the 
quantitative distinction between a constantly thronged public street and a, 
rarely frequented public road. This distinction, indeed, constitutes the 
ground of all our so-called police-laws and the innumerable regulations 
promulgated by the authorities of our larger cities ; regulations which, while 
they seem to interfere with individual rights, abstractly considered, are indis- 
pensable for securing them practically. I need refer only to the I'aid upon 
gambling-houses and violent seizure of their keepers' property, or the arrest 
of suspicious characters and vagrants without any charge having been brought 
against them. Theoretically, there is no reason why I should not build my 
house in all I'espects to suit myself; and if I build in the country, no law will 
be likely to interfere with my doing so. But in a large city the law does 
interfere, on grounds of public safety as well as public health. An innocent 
act becomes thus, by mere change of locality, a criminal offence. 

In short, to cany out the principle, that the least government is the best 
government, logically, would thi'ow our whole present system of government 
back into primitive lawlessness and barbarism. There would be no police 
courts, no public highways, no public schools, public asylums, public sewers, 
public parks, etc., for none of these classes of institutions are directly neces- 
sary to secure the rights of each individual. But since those critics who 
charge my proposed scheme of government as being too paternal in its char- 
acter, deny the necessity of those institutions in at least the more crowded 
sections of the United States, for the purpose of securing those rights, why 
will they not accept the logical consequences, and advocate with me the estab- 
lishment by government of all such other institutions as our advanced civili- 
zation and increased population may render necessarj^ for the attainment of 
the same purpose? If it is within the scope of the proper functions of a, 
government to establish public sewers at public expense in order to preserve 
life and health, why not to establish a system of public parks, forestry,^ 
■public railways, public telegraphs, river improvements, and the like? If it is 
granted that it is the duty of governments to erect and maintain as.ylums for 
the poor, the crippled, the deaf and dumb, the blind, and the insane, without 
regard to their religion, and that all citizens should be taxed alike for their 
support, on what ground do certain sects insist that government has not the 
right to tax all citizens equally for the support of public schools for the 
general education of all? And if it is conceded that the police have the right 
without warrant to arrest suspicious parties under certain circumstances, 
why should not the right be extended to them to require of each unknown per- 



XIV PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

son to exhibit his credentials as a reputable citizen or traveller, in the nature 
of a passport, annexed to his photograph? We have already so far advanced 
on these principles of a representative government as advocated by me, that 
we have a fully organized weather signal-service, supported by public taxa- 
tion, on the sole ground that it works for the general welfare. But if it is 
of general benefit to be furnished by the government with daily weather- 
bulletins, is it not still more necessary to furnish the p^eople Avith a daily 
National and State newspaper, giving reliable authoritative accounts of all 
governmental transactions? We have in a tolerably complete state a system 
of coast-surveys and improvements (light-houses, harbor-dredging, etc.) ; is 
there any ground why our grand rivers should not enjoy a similar system of 
improvements, by jetties, dams, and dredging? Of course there must be 
lines by which to limit this administrative power of a government, if I may 
so call it, in distinction from the purely legislative power, — lines which 
separate a national republican form of government from a "paternal" des- 
potism, that has no limitation at all, but is purely arbitrary. But I thought 
that I had been careful enough to emphasize my recognition of these limita- 
tions in every part of my work. 

Trained as a lawyer from my youth, I certainly am little inclined to advocate 
"paternal" arbitrariness in a form of government as a substitute for a 
system of strict law ; but neither do I feel disposed to see our government 
drift into a state of anarchy and lawlessness from sheer fear that some one's 
imaginary individual rights may be molested. The age wherein we live is not 
the age of the past ; and in the United States, above all other coxintries of the 
world, the most stupendous changes in the social life of the people have 
taken and are continually taking place. But these changes require new gov- 
ernmental machinery ; and the sooner we recognize the fact and apply such 
machinery the better. All other machinery, the product of our modern life, 
has been improved by American inventive genius; why should its political 
machinery alone remain at a stand-still. 

" Liberty and LaAv " is the title of my book. The fullest possible freedom 
for each individual ; but also the fullest necessary constitutional limitations to 
secure the rights of all other individuals against the despotism of class legis- 
lation and corporations. Hence the synthesis also of right and duty. No 
one can claim a right for himself without confessing duties to all his fellow- 
citizens, aud only by assuming those duties can his rights be protected. It 
is "paternal" despotism, for instance, to take men from their homes, com- 
pel them to learn the art of war, as it is called, and then force them to exer- 
cise that art by killing brother men in battle ; for this compulsion abrogates 
individual freedom altogether, and reduces the rational individual to a mere 
piece of machinery. But it is a very proper exercise of governmental func- 
tions to save and preserve human life as readily as to destroy it, to compel 
men to observe the rules of a proper system of sanitary legislation, however 
dictatorial it may appear, since that places his individual caprice within 
bounds, and is necessai-y for his own protection as well as that of his fellow- 
citizens. Even nations recognize the legality of such compulsory sanitary 



PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XV 

legislation, and hence do not hesitate to enforce against each other — in case 
of epidemics, for instance — rules to prevent the spread of diseases. Even the 
diseases of vegetables — potatoes and vines, for instance — and of cattle are 
thus looked upon by nations as proper subjects of international legislation; 
and no nation pretends to say that such legislation is an illegal or improper 
interference with free commerce, or the right of travel. When the "black 
death" leaves its Asiatic home for a westward expedition, and Russia and 
Austria draw up military cordons along their frontiers to arrest its progress, 
none of the other nations of Europe protest against such sanitary measures 
as involving an interference with their rights ; and even the refusal of 'several 
European countries to admit American hams, when the trichina mania pre- 
vailed, did not cause a remonstrance on the part of the United States. 

In the early days of our republic, w^hen the condition of the country at 
large was such as to require little general legislation, we And the attention of 
the great statesmen of those times directed chiefly to the problem, how to 
limit the powers of the general government to the least practicable extent. 
This, at the time, was quite proper; and no one can desire more sincerely 
than I do, that the fundamental principles of the republican government 
established hj the wise statesmen who founded our republic, and greater 
than whom never since made appearance in our historj , should forever be 
cherished in the hearts of the American people. But at the same time I hold 
that those fundamental principles, when logically carried out, and applied to 
such an extensive and intricate governmental machinery as ours has grown 
up to be since the days of those statesmen, require, of necessity, the reforms 
that I have pointed out. 

In truth, I might go further and say, that many of these reforms were 
naturally considered by them;, and left untouched simply because they were 
convinced, and justly so, that the time had not yet come to carry them 
out in practice, and that their descendants would engraft them upon the future 
Amei'ican legislation and constitutions. 

Let me cite an instance : One of the most important features of "Liberty and 
Law" is the proposition to inaugurate an entirely new money-system for the 
United States, by the establishment of an absolute legal-tender money for the 
whole nation. Now, this very same proposition was advanced at a very early 
day of our existence as a united republic by such statesmen as Thomas Jef- 
ferson, Benjamin Eranklin, and later by John C. Calhoun, and many others. 
Thus, Benjamin Eranklin is very explicit on this point, saying that "gold 
and silver are not intrinsically worth as much even as iron and lead." 

Thomas Jefferson, the most enlightened of our American statesmen, says 
this : " Treasurj^-bills, bottomed on taxes, bearing or not bearing interest, as 
may be found necessary, thrown into circulation, will take the place of so 
much gold and silver. Bank paper must be suppressed, and the circulation 
restored to the nation, to whom it belongs.^' 

It would be impossible to condense my px-oposed scheme of flnance for the 
United States in fewer words than these of the most illustrious founders of 
our government. 



XVI PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

Were it necessary to refer to the very words and sentences used by the 
profoundest explorer of the deficiencies of our form of government, as fixed 
under tlie Constitution of the United States,— John C. Calhoun,— let me quote 
from one of his speeches on the currency question of 1832 these sentences : 
" It appears to me, bestowing the best reflection I can give the subject, that 
no convertible paper — that is, no paper whose credit rests on the promise to 
pay — is suitable for a currency. It is the form of credit proper in private trans- 
actions, between man and man, but not for a standard of value, to perform 
the changes generally which constitutes the approximate function of money 
or curfency. No one can doubt but that the government credit is better than that 
of any bank, — more stable and more safe. Bank paper is cheap to those who 
make it, but dear, very dear, to those who use it. On the other hand, credit 
of the government, while it would greatly facilitate its financial operations, 
would cost nothing, or next to nothing, both to it and the people, and would, 
of course, add nothing to the cost of production, which would give every 
branch of our industries, agriculture and manufactures, as far as its circula- 
tion might extend, great advantages, both at home and abroad ; and I now 
undertake to affirm, and without the least fear that I can be answered, that 
a paper issued by government, with the simple promise to receive it for all its 
dues, would, to the extent it could circulate, form a perfect paper circulation, 
which could not be abused by the government; that it would be as uniform 
in value as the metals themselves ; and I shall be able to prove that it is 
within the Constitution and powers of Congress to use such a paper in the 
management of its finances, according to the most rigid rule of construing 
the Constitution." 

Now, it is true, that this financial question, the question of money, was the 
question paramount in the minds of the founders of this government ; but it 
is also clear to any one who reads the pages of the Federalist, that nearly all 
the other problems alluded to by me in this work engaged their attention. 
Thus, Jefferson, who was all in all the greatest American statesman, — though 
George Washington will ever and deservedly rank higher in the luinds of the 
people of the whole world as the most disinterestedly good, unselfish man 
that the world has ever seen, — called early attention to the defects of our 
judiciary system. So did Patrick Henry to the deticiences in our Federal Bill 
of Rights. 

But those grandest of men could not possibly have foreseen -the contin- 
gencies that might arise in the course of our national development. They 
did not foresee the necessity of the acquisition of the Louisiana territory, 
still far less that of the territories of Texas and California ; nor had they time 
or money to establish law codes on the manifold subjects that now engross 
our attention. 

How could they have devised a legislation adequate to the new era of 
steam and electric machinery? 

This, however, does not imply b}^ any means that the form of our govern- 
ment has undergone, or need undergo a radical change. It is still, as it must 
always remain, a cooperative, representative government, organized by the 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XVU'^ 

people of the United States for the purpose of protecting themselves in their' 
individual rights, franchises, and liberties, against all forms of corporate^ 
executive, legislative, and judicial despotism; 

All our township, citj^ town, county, and State and Federal organizations 
have been and are constituted upon this basis of common protection and 
cooperation, to maintain a just equality of rights among citizens. But how 
can such a cooperative system be carried into effect unless the government 
has full power to check every act of the individuals composing that govern- 
ment which might interfere with the rights of the others, and at the same 
time is effectually limited against an undue and illegal exercise of that power? 
In one direction the power of the govei'ument must be absolute, in another 
direction it must be limited; this is the great synthesis which I have tried to 
develop in this book. It must be absolute in its power to protect the life, 
liberty, and property of each individual citizen; and it must be absolutely 
limited in its power to infringe upon the natural rights of such citizens, by • 
injurious exercise Of power by the executive, legislative, or judicial depart- 
ments of the government, whether State or Federal. 

Instead of saying, therefore, that my system would establish too much 
govei-nment for the welfare of the people, it should rather be said, that its 
purpose is to prevent the government officials from governing the people too 
much by class legislation, and robbing them of their property, their moneys, 
their public lands, and revenues, for the benefit of corporations. The 
increase as well as the dimunition and limitation of governmental power 
that will result from the adoption of my system Avill secure to all the people 
the common benefit of a national money-system, a Federal and State railway 
and telegraph sj'stem, and numerous other common benefits ; and will effec- 
tually relieve them from political and corporate despotism, and financial and 
legislative peculation. The former object will be achieved by establishing 
the sanitary, educational, and public intercommunication codes that I have 
proposed herein; the latter object by limiting the State and Federal legisla- 
tures to the exercise of such powers only as are necessary for the protection 
of the natural rights of all citizens, and the development of all their re- 
sources and faculties, as also by limiting the arbitrary discretion of courts in 
interpreting and construing an unknown so-called common law, through the 
adoption of a code of statutory laws, to be, so, far as possible, the same in 
every State of the Union, and arranged on the plan of the Pandects and 
the Code Napoleon, illustrated by the Codes of California and New York;, 
and, finally, by limiting the present discretionary power of executive officials,, 
through such a code of departmental laws as would make irregular and arbi- 
trary action on their part next to impossible. By this latter clause I by no- 
means desire to advocate what is called "civil service reform," a term Im- 
ported from Europe, where all countries have a military and civil service,, 
but utterly meaningless in the United States, where there is in theory and 
substantially only one service, — the civil service, — to which the militarj^ 
is always subordinate ; for a reform which measures the capacity of indi- 
viduals for consular duties, let us say, as an instance, by his acquaintance 

b 



XV 111 PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

■vvitli the higher mathematics, or languages, is about equally ridiculous and 
ineffective. 

Let me recapitulate : In the same proportion as I desire to have the power 
of the government assert itself by taking control of all its highways,, money- 
making, and other prerogatives, I want that government to be so checked, 
that it can under no circumstances whate^■er infringe upon the rights of the 
people, of whom the government is, after all, only the representative. Hence 
I insist that the Federal Constitution be amended so as to limit and restrain 
Congress from granting the public lands to any corporation or association ; 
from making the -United States a party to any corporation or association, for 
anj^ purpose; and from granting, transferring, pledging, assigning, or in any 
way conveying the public moneys, credit, franchises, powers, or sovereignty 
of the government to any person or corporation, and from issuing any intei'est- 
bearing bonds of the United States for any purpose. And, furthermore, that 
means be taken to vacate all the land-grants to railroad corporations, except- 
ing only for such lands as have already been sold by those corporations ta 
innocent purchasers. At the same time the Federal government must take 
hold of and keep under governmental control the whole railway and telegraph 
systems of the country, managing tlie^ii for the equal benefit of every citizen ; 
as it manages the post-offlce system, for instance. There should be no more 
such special legislation as has disgraced Congress during the last fifty years, 
and whereby the people have been systematically robbed of their rights as 
Avell as property, for the benefit of a few grasping speculators and corpora- 
tions, that were able to buy up Congi'ess and the State legislatures. And if 
I am asked how this double task of granting Congress and the State legisla- 
tures more power, and at the same time prevent the passage of private swind- 
ling schemes, can be accomplished, I answer: by constitutional limitations, to 
be fixed by a National and by State conventions, which should inaugurate a 
new, better era for our politician-ridden republic. It can be done if we only 
make up our minds that it shall be done. The people are still the power in 
the republic; but unless they determine to exercise it by constitutional 
restrictions on their delegates, and enforce it by severe criminal penalties for 
such of their representatives who fail to perform their duty to the govern- 
ment, that power will soon pass out of their hands. 

Having thus exposed the misapprehension which has led critics to attribute 
to this work a system of " paternal despotism," I need only bespeak for the 
present greatly enlarged edition of "Liberty and Law " the same favor which 
greeted its first appearance. If it shall still more vitally impregnate the 
American people with those new ideas of political government, that I consider 
essential to the restoration and preservation of our republic, under the era 
of social change and progress inaugurated in the course of this century, my 
highest ambition will have been realized. 

BRITTON A. HILL. 

St. Louis, April, 1880, 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGES 

Preface to First Edition" iii-iv 

Introduction to First Edition . . v-viii 

Preface to Second Edition ix-xviii 



PART FIRST. 

HISTORICAL. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Origin- of History 3-8 

Speculative View of the Historj' of Mankind; The Two Theories; 
An Inspired and a Lower Kace; The Great Pyramid of Jeesah; 
The Hebrews ; The Aryans ; The Egyptians ; Kant on Religious 
Reverence. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Mosaic Code 8-11 

The History of the Descendants of Abraham; Moses, the Great Law- 
giver; The Priestly Order of Levites had Supreme Power; The 
Downfall of the Jewish Republic; The Destruction of the Mon- 
archy ; The Survival of the Jew. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Greek Republics 12-14 

^ Lack of Political Insight among the Greeks ; Their Aversion to a 
Fixed Form of Government ; Their Downfall due to the Absence 
of Government and Law, and the Growth of Aristocracies, with the 
Increase of Commerce and the Money-Power; Sparta the only 
Exception. 



XX TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PAGES 

The Eoman Eepublic 14-1& 

Theocratic Despotic Form of Government in Rome under the Kings ; 
Brutus establishes a Republican Grovernment; The Foundation of 
a Regular Sj'stem of Laws; The Twelve Tables; The Happiest 
Period of the Roman Republic; Growing Love of War and Conquest 
leads to General Demoralization; The Massacres of Marius and 
Sylla ; Downfall of the Republic under Caesar. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Feudal Governments 16-19' 

Invasion of the Roman Empire by the Huns and Goths; Disappear- 
ance of Roman Legislation ; Its Replacement by the Asiatic System 
of Feudalism ; Von Rauraer and Montesquieu on Feudalism ; Its 
History and Downfall ; Frederick HohenstaufFen II. attempts to 
formulate new Codes of Law; The Lombardian Republics. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The French Republic 19-20' 

The French Revolution the First Attempt to overthrow the Feudal 
System; Its Success; The Napoleonic Empire; The Code Napo- 
leon ; The present Prosperity of France under the Rule of the 
New Republic. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Swiss Confederation 20-21 

The only Republic in Europe established permanently ; The Refer- 
endum; The Landed Aristocracy of Switzerland. 



CHAPTER yill. 

The British Empire 22-25 

Characterization of the British Government; The British Landed 
Aristocracy and House of Peers remnants of Feudalism ; Entails 
and Primogeniture ; Signs of a Peaceable Revolution and the 
Organization o<" a Free Republic; The Unfathomable Gulf between 
the Rich and the Poor in Great Britain ; The Irish Troubles ; The 
Remedy. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXI 



CHAPTER rX. 

PAGES 
The GrEBMAN EMPIRE 25-27 

The Revolution of 1848 in Germany ; Cause of its Lack of Success ; 
The present German Empire ; Eesults of the Franco-German 
Wai-; The Spread of Centralized liule and fostering of the Mili- 
tary Power; Increase of Taxes; Emigration to escape Military 
Conscription. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Russian Empire 27-29 

Russia an Anomalous Mixture of Despotism and Nihilism; Its Mili- 
tary Power, and Danger to Western Europe ; The Standing Armies 
of Europe. 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Irrepressible Conflict in Europe ...... 29-31 

Europe on the Eve of a World-Historical Conflict; Turkey in Europe 
the Prize to be won ; Russia and Austria-Hungary the Rivals in the 
Contest; Dismemberment of Turkey; These Wars likely to lead 
to the Organization of an International Court, ending all National 
Wagers of Battle and settling them by Law. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Republic op the United States 31-38 

The Government of the United States an Absolute Creation of Rea- 
son; Its Advantages on that Account; Bad Results from leaving 
State Governments, organized in Colonies settled under British 
Colonial Charters and the Common-Law System of Feudality, sub- 
ject to that System of Law; Necessity of amending our Federal 
and State Constitutions so as to secure Uniformity, by codifying 
the Law and abolishing the Common Law; Other Need for such 
Amendments found in the new Social Life brought about by the 
new Era of Steam and Electricity and the Growth of our Popula- 
tion; The Natural Results of such Amendments and Changes. 



OENERAL PRINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 

CHAPTER I. 

Fundamental Principles 39 



XXll 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER II. 

Analysis of Fundamental Principles . . ... 

Man's Essence is Freedom ; History nothing but Man's Strife for this 
Freedom through Law and Government; Culture shows Man's 
Strife for its Internal Eealization ; Neither can be attained sepa- 
rately — hence the necessity of extending the Sphere of Govern- 
ments so as to secure not only Freedom, but also Culture ; This 
the only way to realize Man's Destination on Earth; Division of 
the Subject. 



PAGES 

39 42 



CHAPTER III. 

Their Realization in a Federative Republic 

A new National Convention for the Amendment of our Federal Con- 
stitution needed, to inaugurate the Requisite Reforms in our Gov- 
ernment and its Administration ; Objections to it removed. 



43-44 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Requirements of a Federative Republic 

Montesquieu's Requirements of such a Republic insufficient; Pro- 
posal to separate one Union into five sub-Unions ; A subsequent 
American Federation, and ultimately a World- Confederation; 
Consequent Changes necessary in the Executive, Legislative, and 
Judiciary Departments ; An Interstate National Court ; Increase 
of Judges in the Federal Courts ; Separation of Causes into Distinct 
Classes, to facilitate the Decision of Causes. 



44-48 



CHAPTER V. 

The Necessity of a Codifcation of Laws 48-59 

•^he Abolition of the Common-Law System indispensable under the 
proposed New Constitution ; General Inadequacy and Oppressive- 
ness of that System; It gives constantly rise to Conflicting Deci- 
sions; The Overthrow of the Constitution of Missouri by the 
Supreme Court of the United States in 1874, and other Cases in 
Point ; Danger of Judicial Despotism ; Two Kinds of Codes neces- 
sary — Federal and State ; Requirements of each Kind; The New 
York Code a good Model of a State Code ; The Prior Establishment 
of a Federal Code, however, advisable, in order to secure Uni- ; 

formity; The Vexatiousness of having Thirty -eight different 
Statutory Laws for so many different States ; The Folly of array- | 

ing State Pride against Uniformity of Codes; The Benefit of hav- J 

ing an International Code illustrated by the Results derived from j, 

recent International Congresses; The International Postal Con- ! 

gress and its Benefits. ^ 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXIU 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGES 

CONCLTTDING REMARKS 59-63 

Draft of an Act for Congress and the State Legislatures, to prevent 
corrupt Judicial and Official Action, Decision, or Judgments. 

PUBLIC HYGIENE. 

CHAPTER I. 

Definition- of Public Hygiene 6-^-6i 

Limitation of Public H3'giene to Pure Air and Pure Food; Supreme 
importance of Pure Air, 

CHAPTER II. 

"W BATHER AND ClIMATE . . „ . . . . . . . CS'-Gfl 

Influence of Weather and Climate on the Purity of the Air; Gov- 
ernment must keep strict and extensive Supervision over all 
Weather Phenomena. 

CHAPTER HI. 

Pure Air 66-76 

Impure Air the Chief Source of Disease ; Also propagates Immoral- 
ity; Dr. Von Pettenkoffer and Dr. Menzie on Quantity of Air 
breathed by Man; The Black Hole of Calcutta; Our Nurseries 
similar Black Holes; Mortalitj'- of Children in the United States; 
LoVe of Foul Air a Species of Love of Intoxication; Necessity of 
Ventilation in all Buildings; Drs. Drysdale and Hayward on 
Ventilation; British Government Commission on same Subject; 
Need of warming Houses; Charles Dickens on Polluted Air; 
Means to secure Pure Air. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Laying Out of Cities 76-86 

Government should prescribe for all Cities and Villages a Minimum 
Width of Streets and Alleys; Also, Proportionate Number of 
Public Squares; Trees as Purifiers of the Air; Dr. J. M. Anders; 
Trees as Electric Agents; Drs. Pfaff, Ahrens, Hummer, and Sie- 
mens ; Trees and Light ; Drs. Hunt, Saussure, Priestley, Sennebier, 
and De Candolle; Public Baths and Fountains to be erected; 
Importance of purifjdng the Soil in Cities; Perfect Drainage; 
Kemoval of Sewage; The London System; Professor Lieber on 
. Utilization of Sewage; The diiferent Processes in Use; Gas- 
works and Slaughter-houses must be excluded from Cities. 



XXIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

PAGES 

Construction or Buildings within the Cities 86-90 

Necessity of a Building-Law for ever}' Citj^ ; Safety in the Construc- 
tion and Ventilation the Main Objects in such a Law; The Soil 
under the House an Active Agent in the Spread of Disease, Infec- 
tion, and Epidemics; Dr. Pettenkoffer on the Subject; Smoke- 
Consumers needed in Cities. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Personal Cleanliness 90-91 

Personal Cleanliness chiefly promoted by Pure Air; Next by an 
Abundance of Baths. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Laying Out of Counties and Townships . . . . . . 91-94 

The Agricultural Districts also to be placed under Sanitary Control; 
Importance of Drainage ; Importance of Parks and Forests for the 
Farming Districts ; Their Influence on the Productiveness of the 
Soil; To be combined with a System of Sheets of Water; The 
Influence of large Parks on the Weather. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Pure Food and Drink 94-9& 

Necessity to regulate the Sale of all. Food and Drink; To preserve 
the Health of all Animals and the Soundness of all Vegetables 
consumed by Man ; Supervision over all Markets and Slaughter- 
houses; Enforcing Game-laws; Stocking Elvers and other Waters 
with Healthy Fish; Inspecting Milk and all Kinds of Drinks and 
Liquors; .Inspecting Drugs, and providing Pure Vaccine Matter; 
Examining all Wells and Water-works. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Concluding Remarks 95-107 

The absolute need of such a general and complete Sanitary Sys- 
tem ; Sporadic Eff"orts result in Comparative Failure ; The Beauty 
such a System would reflect on Cities and Landscapes; Objecti6ns 
to sach a System considered ; The Ancient Persian Custom of 
planting Trees to purify the Soil and Earth; "Arbor Day" 
in Nebraska; Cyrus Thomas on the Necessity of increasing the 
Watercourses in the West; Napoleon's Prohibition of Timber- 
cutting on the Ehine; Gen. James S. Brisbin on our Ruinous 



TABLE or CONTENTS. XXV 



Mode of Timber-felling; The general Decrease of our Timber 
Belts ; Introduction of the Eucalyptus Tree ; Decrease of the 
Timber Land in the Eastern States ; Legislation for Kailroads and 
Horse-cars needed ; Drs. Simon, Tanner, Rush, and Florence 
Nightingale on Diseases and Epidemics. 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

Relation of Morality and Law 108-109 

The Conceptions of Law of a Twofold Peculiarity ; Law neither a 
Natural Force nor a Moral Force, but it makes the Manifestation 
of the Moral Law Possible ; The End and Destination of Man 
lies beyond Pure Legalit}^ ; It can be realized only in the Moral 
Law. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Right to Rest 109-110 

In order to enable Man to rise to a Life in the Moral Law, the T^aw must 
secure him Time ; The Sabbath instituted for this Purpose ; The 
Modern State to protect Citizens in a Daily Time of Rest ; Time 
Man's real Wealth ; Regulation by Law of Time of Daily Labor ; Of 
Children's Labor; The Sunday Rest to be absolutely protected. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Right to Schools Ill 

But Time alone is not sufficient to rise to Moral Culture ; Man must 
have the Means placed within his Reach to attain it ; Hence the State 

must furnish its Citizens Schools and Teachers. 

% 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Nature of Education 111-114 

The Task of Education ; It extends to every Faculty of our Mind and 
Body; Culminates in the Study of Philosophy, of Morals, and 
JEsthetics; Man's Descent from the Ape an Absurdity; Cuvier, 
Huxley ; The Infinity of Man's Life. 

CHAPTER V. 

Classification of Schools 115-116 

Gymnasiums with Military Schools attached, for Bodily Culture; 
Common Schools, High Schools, Colleges and Universities, with 



XXVI TABLE OP CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

Schools of Agriculture, Technology, the Fine Arts, Business 
Education, Law, and Medicine, for Intellectual Culture ; Moral Cul- 
ture to accompany the Intellectual Culture. 

CHAPTER VI. 

School Exhibitions. . 116-117 

A System of Kewards and Premiums for each School an Incitement 
for the Scholars in Place of Punishment, their Distribution form- 
ing a Feature of the Annual School Exhibitions. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Education op Etery Scholar eor a Vocation .... 117-118 
Upon leaving School each Scholar supposed to enter Practical Life ; 
Consequent Necessity of a Fixed Vocation; This System of ScTiools 
does furnish each with a Vocation ; The State to furnish Food, 
Lodging, and Clothing, when absolutely necessary, during the 
Acquirement of such Vocation ; Equality of Sexes in all Schools. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Analysis of this System of Schools 118-132 

The Physical Education to be as thorough as possible ; Agility, 
Beauty, Grace, and Health of the Body to be equally Objects ; The 
Military Schools to make exclusively organized Military Bodies 
useless; Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery Service to be Taught; 
Strength of such a System ; The Common schools to Teach the 
Elementary Branches : the Agricultural Schools to bring up 
Farmers in the Knowledge of their Business : the Indiistrial 
Schools will bring up Skilled Mechanics : the Schools of Tech- 
nology, Professionals : the ^thetistical Schools, Artists : the 
Business Schools, Merchants, Bankers, and General Business Men: 
the Law and Medicine Schools, respectiveh^ Lawyers and Doc- 
tors : the Normal Schools, Teachers : the High Schools, Colleges, 
and Universities to furnish the Highest Grade of Learning to such 
Scholars as intend to devote their whole Life to Pure Science ; The 
Universities, furthermore, to be Places for the Appliance of that 
Learning and its Diffusion throughout the whole Scientific "World. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Concluding Eemarks 132-136 

Objections to this System of Public Schools considered ; It does not 
interfere with the Relation between Parent and Child, but it fur- 
nishes every Child with the Means of developing its Intellect and 
the Ability to earn a Livelihood; Hence the Justice of Taxing all 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



XXVll 



Citizens equally for their Support; It does not interfere with the 
Child's Keligious Education; Keligion not taught in the Public 
Schools ; To be taught in Evening Schools or Sunda^'-Schools at 
each Parent's Option ; Sectarian Schools are untrammelled by the 
State ; The State does not levy Taxes for them any more than for 
Sectarian Churches, Hospitals, etc. ; Objections to Public-School 
Text-Books and "'Readers" equally absurd; A Non-Sectarian 
PuTslic-School System must be upheld in our Eepublic. 



PART SECO:^rD. 



PUBLIC INTERCOMMUNICATION. 

General Principles 

The Duties of Government in regard to the Intercommunication of 
its Citizens; These Duties must be organized into a complete, har- 
monious System; The Recklessness, Fraud, and Extravagance with 
which our Government has hitherto administered this Branch of 
its Duties ; The Republic placed at the Mercy of P' litical Schemers 
and Corporate Despotisms ; Congi-ess dividing its Sovereignty over 
the Currency with National Banks; Encouraging Gold Speculation 
and Swindling; Assigning its Control over Highways to Private 
Corporations; Fostering Telegraplj Monopolies; Corruptly grant- 
ing enormous Districts of Lands and advancing the Public Credit 
to grasping Railway Monopolies ; All this must be stopped by 
Amendments to the Federal and State Constitutions ; The Gov- 
ernment must reassert its Right exclusively to control the Currency, 
and assume exclusive Possession and Control of all Railways and 
Telegraphs; The Checks on these Powers to be secured by Con- 
stitutionar Amendments ; Also, bj' reorganizing our State and Fed- 
eral Legislatures and Judiciaries on Principles that shall effectually 
prevent Corruption ; The scandalous and corrupt Action of Con- 
gress in its Treatment of the National Currency Issue during the 
late War; The necessity of a National and State Public Registra- 
tion System ; Of the Codification of all State and Federal Laws, 
and the Abolition of the Common Law; The Tariff must be alto- 
gether Abolished ; The Immigration of Chinese Labor-Slaves to be 
prohibited; Every Citizen should exercise his Political Functions; 
How this can be accomplished; Polygamy to be Abolished by 
National Laws; The Establishment of State and National News- 
papers; Communistic and Socialistic Outbreaks to be promptly 
suppressed. 



139-150 



XXVlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

MONEY. 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGES 

ORmiN OF Money 151 

Barter the first Mode of exchanging Commodities ; As this became 
impossible, with the Spread of Mankind, Gold, Silver, and Jewels 
became generally recognized Tokens for Exchange of Commodities ; 
Finally, Gold and Silver were coined by the State in ordpr to guar- 
antee their Weight. 

CHAPTER II. 

Inven'tion or Banking 152-15S 

The Extension of the Money System leads to Money-Brokerage and 
Money-Despotism; This Despotism growing as Commerce and 
Industry expand ; Illustrated by the Histories of Carthage, Tyre, 
Greece, Rome, and later, of the Trading Cities of Lombardy; 
Metallic Money becomes insufficient for the Demands of Business; 
Invention of Banking and Money of Account. 

CHAPTER III. 

Ckeation of Money Accottnts and of State Debts . . . 153-163 
Further Increase of the World's Money of Account ; The Mode of 
Operation by which this is done ; Quotation from Blackwood's 
Magazine ; The Governments conclude to also issue Money of Ac- 
count; Issue of Government Bonds ; The present Bonded Indebt- 
edness of the Nations of the World ; State and Municipal Bonded 
Indebtedness; Oppressiveness of Taxation to pay Interest on these 
Bonds ; Reckless Contraction and Increase of these Public Debts ; 
Great Britain and New York City as Illustrations; Bonds, how- 
ever, not only Public Debts, but also Money. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Curse of Interest 163-165 

Bonds a Blessing as Money: A Curse as bearing Interest; This 
Interest the great Cause of Monej'-Monopolies; Bonds also a Mort- 
gage on a State ; Paper Money, on the other hand, bearing no 
Interest, simply a Blessing. 

CHAPTER V. 

The True Nature of Money 165-180 

Government alone should have the Power to Issue Money; The 
Amount needed for Circulation; How to be issued; Of the Cheap- 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



XXIX 



est Substance ; Objection answered that Paper Money is Rag 
Money; Present Coinage of the United- States ; The Intrinsic 
Value Theory of Coin- Worshippers ; Its Absurdity and Delusion ; 
The Silver Question; Production of Metals in the United States; 
Throughout the whole World; Eemonetization of Silver breaks 
down the Rule of the Gold Men; Franklin on Intrinsic Value of 
Gold and Silver; This Plan of an Absolute Legal-Tender Money 
not a Visionary Project; Its Partial Adoption by Russia and 
France; Fichte its Chief Advocate in Germany; Why Govern- 
ment exclusively should regulate Monej'; R. H. Patterson, the 
Champion of Absolute Legal-Tender in Great Britain, in its Ad- 
vocacy. 

CHAPTER VI. 



Hjstoky of otjr Paper Money 

Issues of the Continental Congress; First United States Bank Estab- 
lished in 1791 : Second in 1816 ; Chartering of State Banks ; Con- 
flicts between Federal and State Banks ; Downfall of the Federal 
Banks under Jackson ; Extravagant Issue of Irresponsible State- 
Bank Notes; Their Depreciation and Suspension in 1837; Issue of 
United States Treasury-Notes in 1837-8-9 ; Their Withdrawal and 
the Establishment of State Banks in 1841, and Passage of Bank- 
rupt Act; Consequent Fluctuations and Panics from 1843 to 1861 ; 
First Issue of Federal Money at the Outbreak of the Civil War; 
Further Issue till 1864; Disastrous Results of having Three Kinds 
of Money; Issue of Federal Bonds to supply more Money; The 
Ruinous Discount of their Sale in July, 1864; Criticism of the 
Financial Policy of the Government; Establishment of the Na- 
tional Banks ; The ^Blunder and Expensiveness of the Scheme ; 
The Outrage of the Act of Congress declaring our Currency Bonds 
to be paj^able in Coin; The Contraction Policy; General Bank- 
ruptcy the Result of these Measures; List of Bankruptcies in the 
United States ; The Currency must be increased by substituting 
Greenbacks for Bonds ; Comparison of the per capita Amount of 
Money in our Country with that of other Countries ; The Gold 
Ring endeavors to still further decrease our Circulating Money- 
Medium ; Repeals the Legal-Tender Act and decrees Specie Re- 
sumption; An Absolute National Legal -Tender Money System 
the only Remedy for the present Abnormal Condition of our Fi- 
nances; Objections to it removed; It cannot be illegitimately 
over-issued, but the present Money of Account can be over- 
issued; Thomas Tooke on Over-issues; Coin also can be over- 
issued; The present Power of Congress to issue Bonds is also a 
Power to over-issue Money. 



180-197 



XXX TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PAGES 

Foreign Exchanges and an International Clearing-House . . 198-199 
Such an Absolute Money once established, it will soon become cur- 
rent Abroad as well as at Home ; An International Clearing-House 
would facilitate its Exchange for other Moneys. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Postal Savtngs-Banks 200-202 

The Establishment of Postal Savings-Banl^s would still further 
facilitate the Circulation and Exchange of Absolute Money ; Their 
Success in Great Britain; Postal Orders already effecting the same 
Obiect. 

CHAPTER IX. 

CONOLTJDING REMARKS ; . . . . 202-203 

[Summary of Advantages to be derived from an Absolute National 
Legal-Tender Money System. 



MONEY — APPENDIX. 

\_From "Absolute Money."'] 

CHAPTER III. 

Relation of Absolute Money to Coin 204-215 

Gold and Silver must Pall in Price when no longer Legal Tender; 
No Need of Redemption of Absolute Money in Coins, it being con- 
vertible in all the Commodities, Products, Metals, and Revenues of 
the Nation; John C. Calhoun; Thomas Jefferson; M. E. Davis; 
R. H. Patterson; Practical Benefits of having a National Legal- 
Tender Irredeemable in Specie, illustrated; Disastrous Results of 
pretending to have a Specie Basis; It leads to Panics, and by Con- 
traction of Bank Circulation and Deposits, aggravates their Disas- 
trous Effects ; Panics not caused by " Over-issues " or " Overtrade." 

CHAPTER V. 

A Specie Basis necessarily a Falsehood, a Delusion, and an 

Absurdity 216-21& 

Proved by Law's Scheme, by the French Assignats, the Bank of Eng- 
land Notes, the American Continental Money, etc. ; No Bank can 
Pay its Obligations in Specie; R. H. Patterson; Charles Sears; 
Stephen Colwell. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXXI 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGES 

The True Basis of Absolute Money 219-233 

Its Character as the only Medium for the Interchange of the Commod- 
ities of a Nation, and as the only Legal-Tender ; Its Convertibility 
into all the Products of the Nation, including Gold and Silver; 
It is the only Medium of Interchange adequate for our Growing 
Business ; It is also based on the Public Debt of the United States ; 
It affords more Security than any other Kind of Money ; Hon. Geo. 
Opdyke; Ex-Chancellor O. S. Halsted ; Mr. K. H. Patterson's 
Objections to' such a National Money-System criticised and an- 
swered. 

PUpiilC HIGHWAYS. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Nature of Highways 234 

The State must have Access to every Citizen, in order to be able to 
protect him and establish Communication between the Citizens; 
Hence the Public Highways are State Institutions. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Mail and the Telegraph 235-241 

The Postal Service as one Mode of utilizing Public Highways; 
Why the State should also utilize them for the Telegraph Service; 
Danger of placing that Service in the Hands of Monopolies ; All 
European States have been compelled to assume Control of the 
Telegraph ; Beneficial liesults in Cheapening Rates ; Operation of 
Telegraph Monopolies in the United States ; Extent of our Tele- 
graph Lines; The Telegraphs of the World; Need of Govern- 
mental Control of the Telegraph to direct a National Public 
System; Our Military; Our Money Affairs and Exchanges; The 
Outrage of Private Corporations controlling all Telegraphic News. 

CHAPTER III. 

Public Roads 242-243 

All Public Roads should be kept in good Order, under Governmental - 
Supervision ; Road Inspectors ; All Roads to be kept Clean and 
Safe. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Cakals 243 

Advantage of Canals ; Their Cheapness, Healthfulness ; Their Use- 
fulness for Fish Culture. 



XXXll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

PAGES- 

RiTERS AND Lakes 244-247 

Rivers and Lakes Natural Highways ; Necessity of Rigid Inspection 
of all Vessels by Government Officers; All Obstructions to Navi- 
gation must be Removed, so far as Practicable ; What has been 
done in this Respect; Improvements on the Missouri and Missis- 
sippi Rivers; Eads's Jetties; Government itself should make all 
Improvements. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Railroads 247-270 

The Value of Railroads as furnishing Men with more Time ; How 
the Moneyed Powers and Monopolies utilized that Value by taking 
Control of the Railway Systems of the Country; The Enormous 
"Wealth and Despotic Power they derived from it; How. the Roads 
were built by means of Stock, Mortgages, and Money Grants 
obtained from States, Counties, and Cities by more or less Fraud- 
ulent Means ; The Supreme Iniquity in granting to these Corpora- 
tions enormous Grants of Public Lands belonging to the People of 

. the United States ; The two Pacific Railroads in Illustration ; The 
Enormous Charges levied on Freight and Passage to raise Heavy 
Dividends ; Efforts of the Legislatures to reduce the Rates by 
curtailing the Power of declaring Exorbitant Dividends ; The 
Railroads then begin to "water" their Stock and buy up Legisla- 
tures; The Erie Railroad a Notorious Instance; The Erie, New 
York Central, and Pennsylvania Central; Their System of "Pool- 
ing;" Its Origin; Albert Fink the Inventor; The extravagant 
Land Grants obtained from Congress by Corruption ; The Northern 
Pacific Land Grants ; The Credit Mobilier System ; The Enormous 
Growth of the Railroad System constantly increasing the Danger 
from it ; Tables of Growth and Revenue ; The Belgian and French 
Policy of placing all Railroads under State Control ; The Neces- 
sity of adopting that Policy in our own Country ; The Outrageous 
Despotism of the California Central Pacific; Col. Broadhead; ' 

Government should have Absolute Control of Railroads also for 
War Contingencies; Why such Control is not likely to increase 
Official Corruption; Report of the Commission of the German 
Empire on the Necessity of the Control of Railways by the Govern- 
ment; The Influence of Railroad Corporations on our Judiciary; 
The Case of Murdoch & Clark v. Governor Woodson and Attor- 
ney-General Ewing; The Constitutional Points involved; Deci- 
sions and Opinions. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXXllL 

TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGES 

The Nature of Taxation 271-281 

Taxes should be levied only to an Amount sufficient to pay the Gov- 
ernment's Expenses; The Problem: How to levy impartially on 
all Values alike ; The Notion that Land should be the Basis of 
Taxation a Legal Superstition of Feudalism ; Moses' Mode of Tax- 
ation; Taxation levied on Lund as a Basis a Flagrant Injustice; 
An Income-Tax alone bears equitably upon all ; No Income to be 
exempted; Injustice of exempting Government Bonds from Tax- 
ation; Other Instances of the Injustice of the present System; The 
Taxation of the Missouri Kailroads in illustration; Table showing 
the Inequality of Taxation in the United States ; The New York 
Assessors on the Subject; The New York Tribune on an Income- 
Tax; An Income-Tax should be graduated so as to check ex- 
travagantly large Incomes ; Danger threatening from Excessive 
Accumulation of Wealth in few Hands in Eepublican Communi- 
ties; The first Koman Triumvirate an Instance ; The Case of Wil- 
liam H. Vanderbilt; Professor Bluntchly on the Subject; The 
Power of Individuals to convey, by Gift or Devise, their Property, 
must be curtailed. 

CHAPTER II. 

The True Kules of Taxation 282 

Adam Smith's Maxims of Taxation. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Limits of Taxation 283-290 

Government should Tax only to the Amount of its Expenses ; No 
Taxation should be levied for other Purposes — such as Interest; 
All States and Cities henceforth to issue no more Bonds; The Enor- 
mous Expense of Borrowing on Interest; The Propriety of a Fire- 
Tax considered; How the System of Government Controlling the 
Fire-insurance Business operates in Germany; Comparison in 
that Kespect between Berlin and St. Louis; How Government 
might also administer the Life-Insurance Business; Isidor Bush 
on the Benevolent or Cooperative Life-Insuring Societies; The 
Iniquity of the present Patent-Right System; How it might be 
reformed; Table of its Steady Growth. 



XXXiv TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PAGES 

The Tariff 291-299 

The Tariff another Indirect Mode of Taxation; Unjust as a Means 
of Protection to Manufactures ; Inefficient as a Means of Kaising 
Kevenue ; England and France show the Wisdom of establishing 
Free Trade; Still more strikingly our own States, in their Free 
Interstate Commercial Relations; The Fear of Direct Taxation 
■ must be eradicated ; The Inequitable Phase of the Tariff illus- 
trated; How it cripples our Trade; Our Trade with Canada as an 
Illustration; Inequalit}- of the Operation of the Tariff as between 
the Eastern and Western States : The Tariff a Eelic of Feudalism ; 
It should be altogether done away with. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concluding Remarks 299-301 

An Income-Tax the only Equitable Tax; Taxation annihilates itself 
when made Oppressive ; Hence no more Interest-bearing Debts. 



INTERCOMMUNICATION BY THE PRESS. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Press 302 

Origin of the Newspaper ; Its Primitive Nature ; A mere Publication 

of News. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Demoralization or the Press 808-306 

The Newspaper becomes an Organ of Parties ; The Scurrilous Per- 
sonal Editorial replaces the Dignified Political Treatise; Private 
Life is made scandalously public; The Newspaper becomes an 
Impersonality ; An Organ of Abusive Slander ; How a Number of 
Newspapers became "The Press." 

CHAPTER III. 

A Daily National* New^spaper 306-309 

The Necessity of establishing a Daily National Newspaper; Its 
Functions ; The Publication of News and of all Official Informa- 
tion in the Hands of the Government ; How it would make the 
Publication of an Annual Official Census possible ; The Inadequacy 
of a Ten-year Census; The Effect of such a Publication on neces- 
sitating Correct Reports from the various Governmental Depart- 
ments. 



TABLE or CONT|lNTS. XXXV 

POLICE, PASSPORTS, AND REGISTRATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGES 

The Necessity of a Federal and State Police 310-313 

The Criminal Law punishes Crime : The Police Law seeks to prevent 
Crime; The latter, therefore, the most important; Necessity of a 
strong and well-trained Federal and State Police ; The Private 
Detective Police System inefficient,, and often demoralizing; 
Inadequacy of our present Federal and Municipal Police. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Necessity of Eegistratio^t and Passports ...... 313-315 

No Police can work effectually unless they know every Person living 
within their District; Consequent Necessity of Registration and 
Passports; How to carry out such a System; Its Advantages in 
securing the Purity of Elections : in putting an end to " Mysteri- 
ous Disappearances." 

CHAPTER HI. 

The Superiority of a National Police over a National Army . 315-318 
A large, well-trained Federal Police would make it unnecessar}^ to 
keep up our present Army ; Expense of that Army ; Why a Police 
Force could do the present Duties of that Arrny better than a 
Military Body ; The Canadian Frontier Police in Illustration ; 
The Military Schools would always keep alive in the Nation a well- 
drilled Military Force for War Contingencies. 



CAPITAL AND LABOR; OR, THE RICH AND THE POOR. 

CHAPTER I. 

Analysis of the Conflict 319-320 

Capital and Labor not two Antagonistic Factors in Human Life, 
Labor being also Capital ; The real Conflict is one between the 
Eich and the Poor. 

CHAPTER II. 

Historical Origin of the Conflict 320-323 

The Conflict inaugurated by Rousseau ; Expounded by Adam Smith ; 
Elaborated theoretically chiefly in Germany; It is not a Conflict 
between Workingmen and their Employers ; De Cassagnac on the 



XXXVl TAB&E OF CONTENTS. 



Subject; Man's First Condition nomadic; Eise of Agricultural 
Life; The Builders of Cities; Mechanics; Workingmen; Inter- 
change between all Classes affected by a Third Class; Merchants; 
Consequent Exchange of ' the Barter for a Money-System; Pecu- 
lio"ity of the Inequality amongst Men caused by Money. 



CHAPTER III. 

Attempted Practical Solutions of the Conflict — The Social- 
istic Government of Ancient Peru and the Jesuit Goy- 

ernment of Paraguay . . 323-331 

The Inca Government of Ancient Peru; Its partial Solution of the 
Conflict; Prescott's Account of their System of Law and Govern- 
ment; The Jesuitic Eule in Paraguay another Instance of an 
Attempted Solution of the Conflict; Sketch of their Government. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Russian Mir Socialistic Institution, and the Tenure of 

Land in Europe generally 331-334 

The Mir System of Russia another Attempt at a Solution of the Con- 
flict; Limited, however, only to Agricultui-al Labor; Mode of its 
Operation ; A Common Possession of Lands ; Its Origin to be 
found in Central Asia; Introduced into Europe by the Indo-Ger- 
manic Tribes, on their Emigration from Asia; Still to be found in 
parts of Europe; Replaced in the Middle Ages by the Feudal Sys- 
tem of Land Tenure ; The French Revolution puts an End to this 
Feudal Land Tenure: first in France, then through its Armies 
nearly all over Europe ; Great Britain the only Country in Europe 
left wholly untouched by the French Reform in the System of 
Land Tenure. 

CHAPTER V. 

The Historical Origin of the Conflict — Continued . . . 335-336 
How the Influence of Money on widening the Distinction between 
Men steadily grew ; The Possession of Money gives Man a quasi 
Possession of the Future ; The Money-Miser is really a Visionary 
Idealist ; The True Idealist works out his Idea on the Present ; How 
Money led to Speculating and "Cornering" of all Man's Needs; 
The Non-Possessor of Money the Sufferer. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Attempts at Theoretical Solutions of the Problem . . . 837-342 
How the Theorists have tried to solve the Conflict; The Russian 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXXVll 

PAGES 

Nihilists; Bakonine their Foremost Kepresentative ; His Russian 
Communistic Catechism; The Influence of Russian Nihilism on 
Western Europe and its Literature : On the United States ; Bako- 
nine'sLife; The Bakonite Congress at Verviers; Its Programme ; 
Los Daskamisados ; War upon Propertj^ upon the Family, upon 
God ; The German Socialists ; Their Leaders Marx and Liebknecht; 
The Programme of their last Geneva Congress. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Historical ORiGrN of the Conflict — Concltided . . . 342-343 
How the Possessor of Monej' increased his Power over the Poor by 
the Invention of Interest and the Organization of CorjDorations ; 
The City Mechanic, in his Impotence, becomes a Striker — the 
Agricultural Laborer, a Tramp. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Synthetical Solution of the Problem 344-348 

The real Solution of the Problem to be found in a Cooperative, Fed- 
erative, Republican Government, established on the Principles of 
Liberty and Law; Practical Suggestions; Let all Modes of Public 
Intercommunication be put into the Hands of the Government, in 
order to furnish Emploj^ment to the Workless; The Supreme 
Necessitj' of establishing an Absolute-Money System; Prohibition 
of all Public Debts for the future ; A Graduated Income-Tax, and 
Prevention of the Exorbitant Accumulation of AVealth in the Hands 
of a few; Abolition of all Standing Armies; H. Richard, in the 
House of Commons, on the Cost of Standing Armies ; Finally : 
Work for all Men and Education for all Men. 



PART THIED. 

DOMESTIC RELATIONS, 

CHAPTER I. 

Marriage 351-357 

Why the State must regulate the Marriage Relation ; Blunders of 
Past Legislation on the Subject, and their Causes ; The Moral View 
of the Relation; Why the Law should take a Diiferent View; Be- 
fore the Law, Men and Women should be on a Footing of Perfect 



XXX Vni TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

Equality; The Church may hold that Woman surrenders her Per- 
sonality in Marriage, but Law should take a different View ; In 
Law, Marriage is only a Civil Contract — neither more nor less ; 
What* constitutes Marriage; No Special Ceremony necessary, but 
all Marriages must be recorded for the Use of the State ; The 
Admirable Regulations of the Code Napoleon on the Subject; 
Divorces : how to be regulated ; How to check Prostitution and 
Seduction ; Polygamy nowhere to be Tolerated ; Woman in Early 
History on a Footing of Equalit}^ with Man ; Oriental Polygamy 
the Cause of their Degradation ; Woman in the Times of Chivalry ; 
The Future of Woman. 

CHAPTER II. 

Parents and Children 358-360 

The State must educate and furnish with a Means of Livelihood 
every Parentless Child; The same applies to Children having . 
Parents, with the Exception that in their Cases the State has no 
Compulsoiy Right; Parents the Natural Protectors and Instructors 
of their Children ; After a certain Age, however, svich Children may 
appeal to the State for an Education ; How Criminal Children 
should be Treated. 

THE END OF HISTORY. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Theocratical Tendency of History 361-381 

History begins with a Primitive Theocracy; Passes through num- 
berless Changes of Forms of Government of Law; Its End a 
Perfected Theocracy; Distinction between the Legal and Moral 
Relations of Men to each other; The Relation between Man and 
the Deity the highest ; Twofold Character of that Relation ; 
An Internal Manifestation of the Deity, and an External Crys- 
tallization thereof, known as the Church ; The Direct Relation 
between Man and God; Why the Larger Part of Mankind, 
the Uninspired Race, first made the Worship of God a Sun- 
Worship ; Osiris, Dionysos, Ormuzd; Moses on Sun- Worship; 
Father Clemens; Change in the Character of Religious Ideas; 
The One God, Universal of the Human Race, changed into a 
National God: the God of Love into a God of Wrath; Hence 
the Barbarism of Human Sacrifices to appease the Deity; The 
Bel of Babylon, the Shiva of India, the Huitzli Putzli of the Aztecs ; 
The Horror of a Wrathful God leads to the Conception of a Young, 
Redeeming God ; The Egyptian Doctrine on this Subject ; Dr. Ed- 
ward Roeth ; Pythagoras Transfers it to Greece ; The :£pd<; Xoyoq ; 
Egyptian Hieroglyphics ; How the Egyptian Osiris becomes in 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXXIX 

PAGES 

Greece Dionysos ; His Descent into Hell, and Redemption of the 
Fallen; Monotheism the Religion of all Primitive People ; Lack 
of Belief in Immortality amongst the Jews ; The Doctrine of 
Immortality the Corner-Stone of all Pagan Religions; Dr. Hugo 
Delff" on the Difference between Hellenism and Judaism ; Why the 
Greeks and Romans Accepted Christianity more readily than the 
Jews; The Doctrine of Vicarious Atonement; The Doctrine of 
Revelation; The True Doctrine of Immortality; An Everlasting 
Inspiration of Man bj' the One Spiritual Life ; Perennially Attain- 
ing Higher Perfection and Happiness; Plato, Aristotle, Thomas 
a Kempis, Angelus Silesius, Hegel ; The Fundamental Distinction 
between the Christian and all other Religions ; In Christianity, God, 
Freedom, and Immortality three Facts; Christianity the Abso- 
lute Religion ; Insufficiency of the Oriental Religions ; Zoroaster, 
Brahma; Hegel on the Brahmin Religion; Buddhism the most 
hlase of all Oriental Religions ; Nirvana : Its Interpretation by 
Sir Charles Colebrooke, Max Mueller, and Koeppen; Buddhism in 
China; Confucius in China; General Characteristics of the Chi- 
nese ; The Christian Religion alone is the Religion of Faith, Hope, 
and Charity. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Dangers of a Priestcraft Theocracy . . . . . 381-387 
The Historical Existence of Religion as a Church ; Building of Tem- 
ples; Rise of Priestcraft; Priestly Love of Power; Conflict be- 
tween Temporal and Ecclesiastical Power ; Kant and Rosenkranz 
on the Subject; Kant on the Relation of Church Service to Pure 
Religion ; Why Priestcraft constantly threatens Collisions between 
the Church and the State ; The Supreme Necessity to keep both 
forever sepai-ate; How this can best be achieved in our Republic; 
The most Potent Agent to be found is the Extension and Develop- 
ment of our Public Schools; Free Communion with the Deity the 
End of our Race. 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



PART FIRST. 



HISTOEICAL. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE OEIGIN OE HISTORY. 

Perhaps no other subject of pure speculation has ever engrossed 
the thought of mankind so much as this: What is the origin and 
history of man, from his fii'st appearance on earth unto the present 
day ? Where and in what degree of culture did he first make himself 
linown on earth ; and in what manner did he arrive at the stage of 
culture which he now occupies ? Has he fallen or ascended ? Was he 
originally a man in direct communion with God, or a monkey stretch- 
ing ovit its paws to reach that communion? In answer to these con- 
tradictory questions there arise the arguments of two parties, the one 
of which says : Man is nothing but an evolutionized creature of the 
common dust-speck that you see dancing in the sunbeam before your 
eye ; and the other of which holds that Man is a being fallen from 
original G-od-imageness into his present state of sin and misery. 

Philosophically, we know that every theory or proposition advanced 
in regard to any subject finds its complement in a directly oppo- 
site proposition. Thus, for instance, no self- consciousness can be 
thought without its complement of a non-self-conscious matter. Or, 
to transfer the illustration to another purely mental science: the 
construction of a triangle or a square will always go hand in hand 
with that of a circle. 

In the physical world, again, we also have always, in the same way, 
two contradictory phenomena at every point of time : the fuU-grown 
planet of the earth and the new-born meteors, the nebula of the 
Orion and the Orion itself. 

Search back as far as you please into the geological history of the 
earth, and it makes no difference whether you take billions, millions, 
or thousands of years for your computation, you will always be 

(3) 



4 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

historically compelled to stop at an historically given period, beyond 
which only a wild and disordered phantasy will pretend it possible 
to penetrate. 

May it not, therefore, appear most proper to sum up the two oppo- 
site views regarding the origin of man's existence on earth in this 
synthetical manner : We cannot possibly think a monad evolution- 
izing into a primitive man, without at the same time supplementing 
the thought by the conception of a complete, rational man, in the 
fullest possession of his divine possibilities ; and history bears out 
this view. The earliest authentic record of our race represents 
Adam as the prototype of Jesus Christ, but surrounded by a race 
of men growing up as brutal as He was celestial; even as the 
divinely inspired Sa-\dour appeared in the midst of a debased, sinful, 
earth-loving race of men, whom He came to teach the divine law of 
redemption and salvation through faith and love. 

The philosophers had taught that the soul of the self-conscious, 
man would become ever-li\T^ng by the death of the body ; that the 
law of inspiration from the divine fountain was fulfilled by the ever- 
continuing living of the divinely inspired human being. ^ But the 
divinely inspired God-Man taught the race how to attain the ever- 
lasting life of happiness and activity by a Uving faith and belief 
in God, and by loving God "with all thy heart, and soul, and mind,, 
and thy neighbor as thyself." 

Historically, no one can point out the original appearance of man 
upon the earth. The very nature of the case precludes the possibility 
of such an historical record. But it is very certain, both from phi- 
losophical reasonings and by the records of history, that, at least 
after the flood, man appeared in various parts of the globe at one 
and the same time approximately. In Mesopotamia, Babylon, Egypt, 
and Canaan there were men found in full communion with God ; in 
other lands, as simply uninspired idolaters. The Bible traces out this 
duplicate of man's history very fully. ^ In short, to comprehend 
man's existence on this planet, we must assume that he primarily 
existed not only in the duplicate form of male and female, but also 



1 Plato, Phsedo. Piazzi Smith, LL.D., Koyal Astronomer of Scotland, the 
<' Great Pyramid of Jeesah" (ed. 1877), on the inspired design and construc- 
tion of the pyramid, 4,043 years ago. A miracle in stone. 

2 Genesis, Chaps. X.-XX. 



HISTORICAL. i> 

under the duplicate form of two classes or races of men ; the one 
being of a higher type, and living in liberty under law, and the other 
of downward gradations to the lowest possible type of man, in a 
state of slavery itnder unchecked despotism. The traces of these 
two races are manifest in every part of the globe. In the earliest 
historical account of the Bible we meet the records of the men of 
light and life bringing instruction to the children of darkness and 
death ; in ancient Egj'^pt we have the highest culture and inspiration 
of the age, in conjunction with the most degrading form of idolatry 
and slavery ; in Peru, the Incas brought civilization from the south, 
from the lake of Titicaca, to the benighted inhabitants of the more 
northern regions ; as to Mexico, it was brought from the north by 
the Toltecs ; in the vastly populated domains of Asia we find in every 
separate country two distinct peoples, so to speak, the one unspeak- 
ably debased, the other of rare culture, — whether we turn to China, 
Japan, or India. The higher race, in every instance known to us, 
ascribed its advancement to direct inspiration, and enforced upon 
the lower race the unshakable belief that they stood in direct com- 
munion with the Godhead. In the historical records that have passed 
clown to us from the most ancient traditions and writings, we find — ■ 
when we ignore the younger civilization of the American and Aus- 
tralian continents — two mighty peoples : the one, the Aryans, occu- 
pying Central Asia, and possessed with an ineradicable tendency to 
wander westward. To the Aryans Europe owes its population. The 
other, the Egyptians, settled along the Nile ; and to them Europe 
owes its civilization. The whole culture of Greece, which culture 
civilized aU Europe, came direct from the swarthy inhabitants of 
Egjrpt and Ethiopia ; aiid they had been taught mathematics and 
■ethics by the contemporaries of the builders of the great pyramid at 
Jeesah. 

But between these two mighty races a third race arises in history, 
the Semitic, occupying the bounteous district of land between the 
Persian and Arabic Seas westward to the shores of the Mediterranean ; 
oomprising Mesopotamia, Arabia, Syria, Phoenicia, and Canaan. It 
is of this third race that our Bible speaks chiefly, and to it that we 
owe what is most dear to us: the origin of man's history. For the 
first race, the Arj^an, is traced by Moses down to Japhet; the 
second, the Egyptian, to Ham ; and the third, the so-called Semitic 
race, to Shem, the ancestor of Abraham, and through him of David 



6 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

anci Jesus Christ. Of these three races the Aryan race is the most 
independently distinct, and, especially in its language, exhibits the 
most original structure ; whereas the Semitic and Ethiopic languages 
betray at the first glance close relationship. 

Now, a portion of this Semitic race, residing then in Mesopo- 
tamia, seems to have wandered at a very early stage of history west- 
wardly to Palestine, or the land of Canaan, as it was then called, 
and under the patriarchal rule of Abraham, to have established itself 
there ; keeping alive the traditions of a direct divine inspiration as 
communicated to the first parents of mankind. Being closely allied,, 
as above stated, to the Egyptian race, by language as well as family 
connection, Abraham went, under the pressure of a famine, — to 
which scourge Canaan seems for many years to have been sub- 
jected, — to Egypt, and there seems to have enjoyed close relationship 
with the highest dignitaries of the country. Nor does he appear ever 
to have lost sight of the primitive divine monotheistic faith, which 
had been imbibed by him in Mesopotamia ; though his cousin Lot did 
lose sight of it, and the only man whom he is reported to have found 
reared in the same faith was the priest Melchisedec. 

Under Abraham's son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob, the monothe- 
istic faith gradually dwindled away, and it was only revived under the 
extraordinary influence of Moses, when it recommenced its' conflict 
with the " children of death and darkness." It is a portrayal of thi& 
conflict which constitutes history. For, as Hegel aptly remarks, his- 
tory is simply the development of mankind into a self-consciousness 
of freedom. It describes, thus, a complete circle ; starting from the 
unconscious fulness of freedom in the children of light and life, — - 
the inspired race, as I have called it, — and by an immense struggle — 
a world-struggle — arising through the medium of the lower race 
into the highest perfection of mankind, wherein man not only is. 
free, but also knows himself to be free, with a well-grounded con- 
sciousness of a future life of everlasting activity and happiness. 
We of the present age stand as yet "but on the threshold of this- 
struggle, which, indeed, from other grounds will be an infinite one.. 
For this self-consciousness consists not only in arriving at a. 
knowledge on the part of the whole world of the one God, and 
man's relation to Him, but of a free development of all the fac- 
ulties he has grafted in us to attain the greatest good, happiness,, 
inspiration, beauty, wisdom, and love, of which man's organization is 



HISTORICAL. 7 

capable; that is to say, of State organization and law, of art and 
physical science, of philosophy and religion, — in short, a develop- 
ment to an infinite degree of our infinite faculties. 

And should any one ask how it could possibly have come to pass 
that the comparatively few of the inspired race should have been able, 
in these six thousand years of our world- struggle, not only to have 
held its own against the lower race, but to have made the astounding 
progress which Christian and Hebrew ci^dlization attest this day in all 
parts of the globe, I answer by pointing to that inexplicable phenom- 
enon in mankind which man calls reverence, and of which Kant says : 

"Far from being a feeling of enjoyment, reverence is rather a 
feeling to which we submit very unwillingly in respect to another 
person. We always try to discover something which might diminish 
this feeling in us, some Idnd of fault, to hold us harmless against the 
humiliation which such an example inflicts upon us. Even the dead, 
particulai^ly if their example appears to be beyond our reach, are not 
always secure against this criticism. Nay, the very moral law itself, 
in its solemn majesty, is exposed to this tendency in man to escape 
the reverence it compels. Or, why that constant desire to drag it 
down to the level of an ordinary inclination, and that persistent 
endeavor to make it a favorite prescription for our own advantage 
and enjoyment, unless it is -to escape that terrifying reverence which 
holds up to us so severely our own unworthiness ? Yet, again, there 
is so little of clisagreeableness in the feeling, that if we have once 
thrown aside our self-merit, and have admitted that reverence to prac- 
tical influence upon us, we can never get satiated with the glory of 
this law ; and our soul seems to elevate itself in the same degree as it 
sees this holy law elevated above itself and its sinful nature." 

With this feeling, true rehgious inspiration has conquered the 
world. It was reverence before the mysterious inspirations of God 
and the divine teachings of Jesus Christ. 

In the following brief historical sketches of the most prominent 
nations of the world I have attempted to give an outline of the man- 
ner in which this world- struggle has exhibited itself in various nation- 
alities ; not in its religious form, for that lies without the purpose of 
this book, but in the attempts it has made to secure for its proper 
dfevelopment a proper form of government, from its earliest appear- 
ance in the world to its present highest development in our own 
country. These sketches will the better enable the reader to under- 



•8 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

stand why even this highest development should suffer from the 
deficiencies that I shall then point out, and to comprehend the funda- 
mental principles laid down by me for a just government, with their 
lull apphcation to all the departments of a political State. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE MOSAIC CODE. 



Of all the attempts of antiquity to establish a government that 
should secure the greatest good, happiness, and wisdom to men, 
and bear equally upon all persons in the State, the most perfect and 
successful was the oldest of which we have record, — the legislation 
of Moses, 

A Hebrew of the tribe of the Levites, having fled from Egypt into 
Midian, where he had exiled himself for forty years under the pro- 
tection of Jethro, a priest, whose daughter he married, Moses con- 
ceived there the idea to found a State with a government of law of 
divine origin ; to realize those objects of the greatest good, happi- 
ness, and wisdom ; and selecting the Hebrews, who had been nomadic 
tribes for several centuries before their arrival in Egypt, where they 
had since been enslaved, he hit upon the bold design of emancipating 
them from servitude and leading them out of Egypt into the land of 
Canaan, where he purposed to found a government of law that should 
apply equally to all citizens. 

The law-giver was to be Jehovah, the interpreter between Jehovah 
.and the people was to be Aaron, the brother of Moses, and the tribe 
■of the Levites, of the family of Moses and Aaron, was to hold 
■exclusively the office of the priestly order, which under this theo- 
cratic form of government was necessarily also the temporal govern- 
mental order, for all time to come ; whilst out of their order was to 
be chosen the high-priest or chief magistrate, who was to interpret 
the will of God to His announced chosen people, with whom He in- 
tended to dwell in a tabernacle built for His worship, and wherein the 
ark of His covenant was to be placed, within the veil of His holy 
temple. 



HISTORICAL. 9 

Judges were to be selected from all the tribes, according to their 
attainments and wisdom, to sit in judgment in all the actions and 
suits between the people, subject to a final appeal to the high-priest, 
who was the chief executive officer, — civil, judicial, political, and 
rehgious, — and who, moreover, might be the military leader in time of 
war. Every tribe regulated its own domestic affairs in all other mat- 
ters. The whole form of government thus established by Moses was, 
therefore, that of a federative republic. 

With such a great design of a form of government, altogether new 
for his time, and with a no less wonderfully elaborate code of laws 
to carr3^ it out, prepared during his forty years of exile in the land 
of Midian, this hero came down to Lower Egypt, at the age of eighty 
years, to deliver his people from bondage, and to found a model gov- 
ernment, under the direct protection and rule of Jehovah, whose 
voice he had heard in the burning bush on Mount Horeb, summoning 
him to deliver the people whom He had chosen to dwell with on earth, 
and to govern them by divine laws and authority, through the agency 
of a high-priest. 

He delivered them from slavery, led them through the Red Sea, 
announced to them the divine law from Mount Sinai, purified them 
by daily instruction for forty years in the desert and the wilder- 
ness, approaching the land of Canaan by circuitous routes through 
a terrible pilgrimage of forty years, that was necessary to renew the 
Hebrew slaves of Egypt by new men and women torn in this desert 
and wilderness, — a new race that might be obedient to the law and 
enured to the art and hardships of war ; and, having accomplished 
this object, he ascended the height of Pisgah, gazed upon the distant 
land of Canaan, and died alone on Nebo's lonely mountain, in the 
laud of Moab, where the great law-giver sleeps in an unknown grave. 

The wonderful wisdom of Moses in laying down the fundamental 
principles of law for the just government of the people was not fully 
appreciated until some tirne after his death, when the effects of his sys- 
tem showed its results in the elevation of the Hebrews from the most 
abject slavery to a condition of comparative freedom and happiness, 
under the government of the high-priest and the judges that admin- 
istered the law according to the code prepared by Moses. 

The government thus established was in its nature strictly theo- 
cratic, and in its character the only one of the kind that has ever 
been established in the history of mankind ; God himself being the 

f 



10 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

leader and king of His chosen people, the priesthood alone holding 
communion with Him in the sacredness of the tabernacle, and yet the 
people ruhng themselves, and organized in the only rational form of 
government, which is that of a federative republic. For it seems 
evident that Moses intended originally to confine the communication 
of the priests with Jehovah in the main to spiritual matters, to ele- 
vate their moral nature, and bring them into that direct contact with 
the fountain of inspiration which alone can raise man from his degra- 
dation and lowliness. 

This grand concej)tion of a government derived from God himself, 
the King of the Hebrews, — immortal, invisible, all-powerful, and all- 
sufflcient, — gave that people a confidence in their Divine Protector 
that made them invincible for more than four hundred years. 

But this theocracy ,_ though very powerful, was not strong enough 
to resist the corrupting influences of wealth, luxury, and absolute 
dominion. The vast difference between the social station and pre- 
rogative rights of the priesthood and the people of the other tribes 
laid the foundation of the monarchy and royal prerogative, which 
ended in the downfall of the State and the dispersion of the chosen 
people to the four winds of heaven. 

Before such theocratic prerogative power the freedom of the indi- 
vidual Hebrew became a reproach. The people of the tribes were 
no longer freemen, but slaves of power and prerogative. 

The priesthood,* the highest office in the State, from whose ranks 
the high-priest, the chief ruler, was chosen, being confined to a single 
tribe, the family of Levi, that family thus became the fountain of all 
honor, power, and profit in the State. This aristocratic feature in 
the Mosaic constitution finally destroyed the civil liberty of the Jews 
and overthrew the State, while the changes made in the Mosaic code 
by this hierarchy for its self-interest uprooted the morality of the 
Mosaic law, and thus assisted in the final dispersion and ruin of the 
chosen people. 

In this way the attempt of Moses to organize a State constitution 
for the realization of the highest good, happiness, and freedom of the 
people of his race resulted in a failure ; and the most admirable at- 
tempt to form a State organization, based upon the only true prin- 
ciple of a federative republic, wherein every citizen was to be equally 
protected in his rights, and raised to the highest standard of excel- 
lence by an admirably contrived sj^stem of sanitary regulations, and 



HISTORICAL. 11 

such moral education as the age was capable of after fifteen centuries, 
finally shattered, from the working out of the principles of latent 
despotism contained in the hierarchial element introduced into the 
plan of the republic by its illustrious founder. 

It was by reason of the perpetual conflict introduced by this ele- 
ment in the Mosaic code between the laws applied to the people and 
physical nature, and the prerogative powers of the priesthood, that 
the ci\al fabric of the federative republic continued only about four 
hundred years, from the conquest of Palestine, in the year 1500 b. c, 
to the establishment of the Hebrew monarchy, in the year 1100 b. c. 
It was not important to the final failure of the Mosaic code of gov- 
ernment whether the high-priest or a king exercised the supreme 
power ; it was this despotic feature of the code itself which eventu- 
ally, in its results, overthrew the liberties of the people and expelled 
them from the land of Judea, making them wanderers over the earth 
ever since. 

And yet, in despite of the downfall of his political fabric, what a 
legislator must that man have b^en who was able to raise tribes that 
had sunk down to the lowest condition of slavery, to a moral con- 
sciousness and height which has kept the Jews a separate organiza- 
tion to this day ! All other historical national bodies have perished ; 
only the Jew has survived. Nay, more : having been for the second 
time cast down to the lowest depth of degradation, expelled from 
their native country, and scattered over the world, the Jews have 
elevated themselves, sheerly by dint of their own moral power and 
self-consciousness, to a position which compels wonder and admira- 
tion. It was the Jcav that brought to the illiterate Christians of the 
"West, in the Middle Ages, the lore of the Arabians, their mathemat- 
ics, and their Aristotelian metaphysics ; it was the Jew that dictated 
to them the terms on which to borrow money, and invented for them 
the system of banlring ; it was the Jew that thus gradually raised 
himself to the supreme power of the European world, the money- 
power, controlling even now the destinies of empires ; and it is the 
Jew who has finally, in our day, subdued and made subject to one of 
his representatives, the Baron von Renter, that same empire of Per- 
sia where his forefathers moiirned as captives under the willow-trees, 
and wept by the rivers of Babjdon. 



12 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

CHAPTEK in. 

THE GREEK EEPUBLICS. 

In some way or another, that same element of a prerogative despot- 
ism which overthrew the Mosaic State has proved the destruction of 
every hitherto established form of government. And this of neces- 
sity. For, the object of a State organization being to apply laws 
equally to all citizens, the very conception of a prerogative is at war 
with the conception of such a State, and must necessarily destroy it 
and again be destroyed by it. Every political contradiction must die, 
bj^ its very nature. 

In the Judean republic, the most successful of ancient times, it 
was, as has been shown, the hierarchical element which destroyed the 
State. The Greek so-called republics are scarcely worthy of political 
■examination. No people had less conception of State organization 
than that people, which from its own high individual culture needed 
it, indeed, least ; but, it might also be said, needed it most, as a fitting 
frame and enclosure for the world of beauty which it produced. For, 
with a fitting government of law, this marvellously gifted people might 
have achieved results far more extensive than it did achieve, and 
saved mankind the centuries of retrogression consequent upon the 
downfall of all foi-ms of government which followed the irruption of 
the Huns and Goths into Europe. 

But the Greeks had an aversion to all fixed form of government, 
an aversion as great as that of the Indian tribes of our own country, 
whose political mode of living has indeed an extraordinary resem- 
blance to that of the early Greeks ; Agamemnon, for instance, having 
about all the power, and not a whit more, of an Indian chief. They 
could not bring themselves to acknowledge a general government of 
law, in the pride of their individuality, and consequently they per- 
ished. 

Thus, as the Mosaic government, in its first grand results of rais- 
ing a tribe of miserable slaves, ignorant, filthy, and lawless in the 
highest degree, to a condition of remarkable strength, intelligence, 
and political culture, shows the power, effectiveness, and necessity 
of a strictly defined State organization, established upon pure prin- 
ciples of reason, so the history of the Greek republics shows us, on 



HISTORICAL. 13 

the other hand, the negative of all this, and how the most gifted of 
all the people of the earth perished necessarily because it disregarded 
the need of law. 

The opposite of the Jews in all respects, the Greek people had 
formed itself out of all sorts of elements of humanity ; contracting 
no fixed character, no fixed "ties of tribe or nationality, but leaving 
everything free, ^^outhful, and individual. Their ideal is represented 
in Achilles, the foremost knight of that age ; and as in the knightly 
period of the Middle Ages the crusades formed the fh'st great bond 
of union for these individual fighters, so the siege of Troy first com- 
bined the Hellenes into one people, but without any definite organ- 
ization and law, each being his own law-giver. This disorganized 
condition lasted for a long time, and in it the first sign of prerog- 
ative showed itself as the cities of Greece rose by commerce and 
trade to importance and power. For a long time the acquisition of 
more territory by colonization checked the growth of despotism, as 
it has done and does now in our country ; but the power of money 
and monopoly, which all trade and commerce, not regulated by wise 
and just laws, invariably produces, finally asserted itself, and then 
there arose tyrants in the cities. Moses had purposely prohibited 
commerce to his own people, and by that measure, as well as by his 
judicious laws of bankruptcy, made money-despotisms impossible in 
the State. Sparta was probably the only State in Greece which re- 
tained a republican form of government for any length of time, under 
the laws of Lycurgus, who tried to bring about the same result which 
Moses effected by his prohibition of commerce and his laws of bank- 
ruptcy, in introducing and establishing iron as the only allowable 
money, and prohibiting the sale of property. This virtually excluded 
the spirit of commerce from Sparta, and thereby checked the devel- 
opment of moneyed monopolies. 

All the other cities of Greece changed from republican forms of 
government to despotisms alternately, the people heeding little their 
political combination, nor the laws which were to afford them pro- 
tection, in which unconcern the establishment of slavery as well as 
the virtual absence of monogamic family life materially assisted. 
Art, beauty, culture, and individual independence in the enjoyment 
of these things, absorbed all the attention of the Greek citizen. It 
was not the law itself, but the tone of voice in which it was an- 
nounced, the gesture which accompanied its enunciation, that deter- 



14 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

mined its acceptance. A finer modulated tone and more expressive 
and beautiful gesture of another orator caused to-morrow its repeal. 

Nevertheless, no sooner did the Persian ruler approach, with his 
terrific army of millions, to crush the world of individual freedom 
with the weight of Asiatic despotism, than all these reckless, free, 
gay, and brave young Greeks rushed' together as one people, and 
slew the common enemy in the most momentous conflicts of history. 

But the Persian wars, in their effects of increasing the wealth of 
the Grecian cities, particularly of Athens, by the immense contribu- 
tions exacted from other places, only increased the evil of money- 
power and prerogative, making possible the success of so reckless a 
man as Alcibiades, and gave rise to the wars between the various 
parts of Greece, whereby all of them finally became the prey of 
Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander, who gave them what they 
had never had : a fixed government and administration of law. But 
it was too late ; and, like Judea, Greece fell into the hands of the 
most powerful of all State organizations of the Old World, the Roman 
republic. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

THE KOMAN EEPUBLIC. 

If the Greek republics collapsed chiefly from want of any fixed 
State organization, and from the growth of money and monopoly pre- 
rogatives, the fall of the Roman republic shows in the most vivid and 
effective way how the "strongest organization is doomed to suffer the 
same fate from the workings of the latter alone. 

Under the old Idngs, a sort of theocratic-despotic form of govern- 
ment held the Roman people together with iron severity. Monogamic 
as the Hebrews under the code of Moses, it was the violation of the 
sanctity of matrimony which roused the Roman people, under the elder 
Brutus, to expel Tarquin, their last king, and establish a republican 
form of government, the aristocratic features of which — in that a 
class of patricians exercised all political power — soon gave way to the 
constant pressure exercised on it by the populace ; until, after many 
conflicts, the common people succeeded in securing a system of writ- 



HISTORICAL. 15 

ten laws to protect tliem in theii- rights and property, besides effecting 
many other political reforms in the organization of the State for their 
protection against the encroachments of patrician prerogative. The 
existence of slavery had been a powerful element in favor of the patri- 
cians during this whole period of struggle for equality of rights on 
the part of the people. 

The establishment of these laws, — the twelve tables, — which have 
been the foundation of all succeeding legislation, and the adoption 
soon after of the Licinian laws, virtually did away with the last dis- 
tinctions between patricians and plebeians, and inaugurated the hap- 
piest period of the Roman republic. It was then that, by an unhappily 
growing love of war and conquest, which extended the rule of the 
Roman people gradually over all Italy, Carthage, Greece, Macedon, 
Palestine, Spain, Gaul, etc., there arose a class of men who, by the 
acquisition of wealth and military power, laid the foundation for the 
downfall of the republic. The immense number of provinces sub- 
jected in course of time to the Romans made necessarj- the presence 
of many vast armies, under ambitious leaders, by the very nature of 
their profession unfriendly to republican principles, as also an equally 
dangerous body of tax-collectors, proconsuls, etc., who amassed fabu- 
lous sums by their oppressions and extortions, sending to Rome 
considerable sums of money, but putting the main part of the plunder 
into their own pockets. 

The whole State organization thus began to fall under the con- 
trol of a band of robbers, the most colossal in power that has ever 
held sway, and which maintained its power as the Tweed band did in 
New York, by dividing its plunder with the poor classes. Idleness 
and luxury followed this terrible system of spoliation. The wealthy 
robbers, the high officials in power, introduced every species of ex- 
travagance that could be found under the wide domain of the empire ; 
the poor gathered around the market-places in idleness, to pick up 
their share of the distribution of these "revenues." In vain did 
Tiberius Gracchus, and Caius, his brother, oppose themselves to the 
most shameful of these money-monopolies ; bribery and corruption 
had become so general that Jugurtha was able to buy up even the 
Roman Senate. Thirsting now for continuous war as. a permanent 
source of plunder, the Roman people soon started wars among them- 
selves, and civil discord thus became for their ambitious leaders the 
same step to advancement which foreign conflicts had been,' The 



16 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

massacres of Marius and Sylla in Rome made offices vacant for their 
respective friends, and filled their hands with money and vast posses- 
sions. The slave population, which had been constantly increased in 
number under this demoralizing state of things, attempted, under 
Spartacus, in vain to free itself ; Crassus, one of the foremost of the 
official plunderers, after a terrible struggle, terribly suppressed it; 
while Pompey, another one, won his celebrated victory over the 
pirates ; the ruling principle being that no minor thieves should be 
tolerated, lest the greater ones of Rome might not get all ; until the 
greatest, but at the same time one of the most gifted and extraordi- 
nary of all men of history, Julius Caesar, succeeded in placing the 
control of the whole empire, the most powerful of all historical 
empires, in his own hands, and virtually ended the Roman republic. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FEUDAL GOVERNMENTS. 

The Roman republic ha\dng crushed all other historical govern- 
ments, and itself having been crushed by the rise of a military and 
money despotism vast enough to overpower even so powerful a 
fabric, the civilized people of Europe had all sunk into a condition of 
slavery under the Roman empire, from which they were aroused only 
when the wild hordes of Asia overran the empire and threw all 
Europe into a state of political and legal chaos. For, miserably as 
the Romans had contrived the political organization of their republic 
and empire, they had exhibited a genius for municipal law which has 
ever excited the admiration of the legal profession in all countries. 
Strange that a people so highly advanced in the science of jurispru- 
dence should have understood so little of the science of political 
government ! But with the invasion of Italy by the barbarian hordes, 
all that municipal law, so admirably collected and arranged by Jus- 
tinian, was >as completely swept out of sight as the Roman empire 
itself, and it was not till the twelfth century that it was rediscovered, 
since which time it has gradually again asserted its influence, more 
or less, upon the jurisprudence of modern Europe. 



HISTORICAL. 17 

But mean?rhile there grew up, from the fifth to the tenth centuries^ 
in vfliyiug forms, over France, Germanjs England, Aragon, and part 
of Itaty, the Asiatic system of feudal rule and law, which still partly 
holds its own in England, though it has been recently abolished im 
Japan ; a system that, whatever advantage it had over the central- 
ized despotism of Rome, by disintegrating the one-man power of 
imperial rule, still retained the most essential features of despotism, 
in establishing hereditary prerogatives of a favored class, or aris- 
tocracies of birth, wliich the weakness of the kings under that system 
found it impossible to check. Noted warriors were endowed with 
benefices, or fiefs, or large tracts of land, which they endeavored, 
and generally successfully, to secure permanently to their families, 
while governors of provinces similarly contrived to make then* power 
hereditary. Gradually these men assumed titles according to their 
several functions, and thus arose the numerous classes of dukes, 
counts, marquises, margraves, barons, etc., which figured so exten- 
sively in the Middle Ages, and laid the foundation of that aristocracy 
of birth whose members, sprung from the lowest hordes of savages, 
finally claimed to be God-chosen superiors of the more honest but 
poorer people, and thereby established the monarchical tyi'aunies in 
the various countries of Europe. 

Compared with the threatened rule of absolute despotism, which 
Charlemagne's great successes had caused to be feared, the original 
establishment of the feudal system must be considered to have been 
a blessing to the European people. " Equally apart," says the great 
German historian, Friedrich von Raumer, " from the miserable servi- 
tude of oriental peoples, and from the cold obedience which many 
superficial minds consider only a necessary evil, and which they 
reluctantly pay to their government, we see in it a personal attach- 
ment and reverence of the vassal for his lord and Iring, strengthened 
by the power derived from actual possession." Montesquieu also, 
one of the most enlightened writers on law, pays a sincere tribute 
to the original feudal organization when he says : " I do not believe 
there has ever been established on the earth so well-tempered a 
government ; and it is to be admired how the corruption of the gov- 
ernment of a conquering people formed the best sort of government 
which men were able to imagine." Von Raumer, again, in comparing 
the three forms of government, uses this remarkable image: "An 
even plain and a solitary pillar erected upon it, is the symbol of many 

2 



18 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

unrestricted monarcMes. All republics may be likened to a globe : 
each part of the animated surface seems equally important and 
worthy, and from seemingly opposite effects and counter-effects there 
yet arises one main tendency and movement. The symbol of 
feudality is a pyramid. From the base to the apex all parts are 
unchangeably united ; down below the greatest number, and gradually 
decreasing, the king on the top. The pillar may fall down, or by 
mihtary tyranny beat down the people ; the globe may perchance roll 
beyond its assigned path, but nothing is more firmly grounded and in 
more safe equilibrium than the pyramid." 

The history of the feudal age has itself curiously illustrated the 
image. Neither part of the pyramid was satisfied with its position. 
The top was powerless, and could communicate with the lower j)art, 
the people, only through the medium of the central part, or the 
nobles, and thus strove to remove that centre as much as possible, 
succeeding notably in France through the effort of Cardinal Riche- 
lieu and Louis XIV., when they broke the power of the nobles. The 
central part thought it useless to support the upper part, of which it 
stood in no need, and strove to remove it as much as possible, suc- 
ceeding in England by making a mere figure-head of the king, and in 
Germany by establishing itself into numberless small principalities. 
The lower part, the most numerous of all, meanwhile groaned and 
suffered all the time, until finally, in the earthquake of the French 
Revolution, it lifted up and overthrew at one and the same time king 
and nobles, proclaiming to an astonished world the sovereignty of 
the base, — of the people. 

Thus was doomed the pyramid ; and the globe only remains as 
indeed the only stable and perfect figure for all government of man 
as for all nature, — the figure in which the suns and stars move in 
eternal order and progress through endless space. 

It was the inequality which the various parts of the pyramid bore 
to each other that proved its ruin ; the prerogative of the higher, the 
nobles, and of the highest, the king, that weighed down too heavily 
upon the common people at the base. 

During all these times of transition from feudal forms to monarch- 
ical and aristocratic institutions, only one great effort was made to 
establish a code of law for any people. This was done by Frederick 
Hohenstauffen 11. , emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (died 1250), 
,me of the wisest and greatest men of his time, whose code of legis- 



HISTORICAL. 19 

lation, for boldness and originality of conception as well as for its 
comprehensiveness, has its counterpart only in the Institutes of Jus- 
tinian and the Code of Napoleon. But, far ahead of his age, and in 
constant combat with both the hierarchical despotism that then had 
grown up in Rome and extended itself over all Europe, and the 
money despotism that had just risen to a power never before dis- 
played, permanent results could not follow his exertions, and with 
the downfall of the Hohenstauffen dynasty, arbitrary rule again 
usurped the place of law and justice in Europe. 

Every sentiment of freedom on the part of the people died out; 
here and there only a small community establishing itself under a 
republican form of government, chiefly in cities like those of North- 
ern Italy, and later the free cities of the north ; until the Cantons of 
Switzerland organized the first attempt of modern times to establish 
a rational federative republic. The Netherlands followed in the same 
direction, and in England also attempts have continually been made 
to establish its political State organization upon republican principles 
of o;overnment. 



CHAP TEE VI. 

THE FRENCH EEPUBLIC. 

The first of the great nations of Europe that emerged from the dust 
and ruins of the feudal fabric was France. The most awful convul- 
sion of history overthrew for a time eyery prerogative that had been 
established, — priestly, lordly, and kingly, — and reasserted the right 
of every citizen of the State to equality under the law. But in the 
violence of the revolution the movement overleaped itself, and by 
establishing the prerogative of Paris as the centralized ruler of 
France, created another despotism, whereby the promise of the 
beginning was Idlled off ere it was able to do more than fill Europe 
with a new feeling of freedom and exuberance, the like of which is 
not to be met with in all history, and which burns still, though under 
the ashes that were heaped upon it to suppress it. 

The other despotism was that of the first Napoleonic empire, which, 
with all its military glory, its reorganization of society, its establish- 



20 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

ment of internal improvements and development of the commercial, 
industrial, and agricultural interests of the nation, and even with its 
universal franchise, was nevertheless essentially a despotism. 

Its greatest achicA^ement in the way of social and political progress 
was the promulgation of the Code Napoleon, which, taken all in all, 
is the most perfect and comprehensive system of law provided by the 
mind of man, until the appearance of the six New York codes and 
the codes of California. There is no occasion in this work to trace 
the history of France throughout the vicissitudes that followed the 
downfall of the first empire, until its reestablishment in the second 
empire, the overthrow of which, and succession by a new republic, are 
matters of contemporaneous history. Still, this may be said here, in 
proper connection with the general tendency of this work : that at no 
time of her history has France made such rapid strides of advance- 
ment in every department of human progress as during the present 
republican rule. All the gilded prosperity of the second empire, that 
faded away at one blow with the Sedan surrender, is as nothing when 
compared with the real prosperity of the France of to-day, dismem- 
bered as she is by the loss of two of her finest pro^dnces, and still 
suffering from the hfe loss of thousands of her brave citizens and 
the money loss of twelve milliards of francs. Nor is it out of the way 
here to express my conviction that the present French republic, if it 
establishes my money system and keeps down monopolies, will be a 
permanent factor in politics, and that around it will centre all the 
achievements of republican freedom in Europe. 

There is at the present time, and will probably be for many years 
to come, more wealth, prosperity, individual industry, frugality, 
and virtue in much-slandere4 France than in any other country of 
Europe. 



CHAPTER Vn. 

THE SWISS REPUBLIC. 



Of all countries in Europe, it is only in Switzerland that the 
attempt to establish a rational form of federative government has 
been thus far crowned with success ; although the introduction of 



HISTORICAL. 21 

the referendum — whereby the laws, after their enactment by the 
legislative council of the Swiss Confederation, are submitted to the 
approval of the people — has, of late, greatty shaken the confidence 
of statesmen in the perpetuity of its institutions. Besides, the Con- 
stitution of the Confederation is defective in not providing a suffi- 
cient bond of union between the Cantons ; and they are mainly 
dependent upon foreign countries and bankers for their mone- 
tary means of intercommunication and commercial and business 
exchanges. 

A most oppressive aristocracy of landed proprietors has also 
become established, which may eventually destroy the liberties of 
the people, by absorbing nearly all the political powers and official 
positions in the different Cantons. This predominance of a landed 
aristocracy, the keystone of the feudal system, gives great solidity 
to the Swiss Confederation ; but the result is the same there as 
elsewhere : to impoverish the masses of the people, and eventually 
force them into the same helpless labor slavery that prevails in 
England, China, Russia, and other countries where the same sort of 
aristocracy prevails. 

The most striking feature of the Swiss form of government, how- 
ever, is the referendum system, to which I have already alluded. 
The question which it involves is, in short, this : Is it wise that the 
legislative bod}^ should have absolute power to pass laws, or should 
each law be submitted to a direct vote of the peoplS, after having 
"been passed by the legislature ? 

The arguments in favor of the system are chiefly these : The people 
are compelled to become acquainted with the laws of their country; 
no private law can be smuggled through a legislative body and be- 
come effective, unless the people at large agree to its justice ; and in 
this respect it is the only real democratic form of government. 

The main arguments against it are, that it is liable to abuse, and 
gives rise to a class of pure demagogues ; that it is excessively cum- 
bersome and expensive ; and, finally, that it places ignorance on an 
improper footing of equality with education and intellect. 

As yet the system must be considered merely an experiment ; nor 
will its success show that it could be made appUcable to so extensive 
a country as our own. 



22 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

CHAP TEE VIII. 

THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Though in the more northern monarchies of Europe — Denmark, 
Norway and Sweden — there is more real republican freedom than 
in Great Britain, still the British Empire lays claim to having the most 
purely popular form of government in all Europe. Now, it is very 
true that in Great Britain the representation of property, the integrity 
of the judicially, and the universality of the laws for the encourage- 
ment of commerce and manufactures have certainly thus far pro- 
duced commercial, trading, and manufacturing prosperity, but only 
at the fearful cost of enslaving labor and impoverishing the masses. 
Still, the landed aristocracy of Great Britain, created by the feudal 
system and holding the principal landed estates in the kingdom, has 
not been able to absorb the common liberties of the British subject 
to such an extent as to destroy them altogether, because the new 
sources of profitable employment opened up to the industrious middle 
classes in new colonies, the new powers applied to mechanics, and 
the new fields of wealth in gold, silver, commerce, banking, and 
exchanges, have raised many members of the poorer and middle 
classes to almost an equality in wealth with the richest peers of the 
realm. 

On the other hand, while the Established Church has encountered 
too many opposing sects to become a very dangerous hierarchical ele- 
ment, save so far as it is united with the State, the royal charters, the 
money despotisms, the other powerful companies and monopolies 
existing in the British Empire, have always been held in check more 
or less by the hereditary aristocracy of the House of Lords, which 
overshadows and balances all other prerogatives. But the multitu- 
dinous complications of the British administration of public affairs, 
with its false systems of law, of government, of religious establish- 
ments, of education, and of the management of the colonies, cannot 
continue for any considerable period of time longer, and a revolution 
is now threatening which will in all probability result in the peaceable 
establishment of a republican federative government over the empire 
and all its colonies. This would at once place the new republic of 
Great Britain in the front rank with the most powerful nations of the 



HISTORICAL. 23 

world, and relieve her people from the intolerable burdens of the 
feudal system, and all the aristocracies and monopolies that have fol- 
lowed in its train. 

It has been well said that a revolution in Great Britain would not 
be a French revolution, accompanied by scenes of bloodshed, devas- 
tation, and carnage, but one moving in a quiet way for the creation of 
constitutional safeguards and just representative systems, to secure 
poHtical equality under wise and harmonious codes, to be estab- 
lished by the people in solemn conventions. 

It will be the best for all the subjects of that country to unite in 
this grand movement for the common good ; for if the aristocracies 
of monopolies or of birth force on a conflict between the people and 
themselves, the issue cannot be doubtful, and the losses will fall 
necessarilv upon the parties now in possession of all that is valuable 
in the kingdom, and their utter ruin will be inevitable. For men are 
but men everywhere, with similar gifts, endowments, and passions. 
The hungry English laborer and the hungry French laborer have the 
same cravings for bread, for freedom, for equal political rights, and 
will not hesitate to use the same means to satisfy that craving. In 
truth, history would rather teach us that the Englishman is quicker 
to assert his rights, and more determined in removing every obstacle 
in the way of their assertion, than the Frenchman. The Magna 
Charta was extorted from IQng John by the Enghsh barons while the 
kings of France were preparing for the subjection of their nobles, 
which Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. consummated. King Charles I. 
was beheaded long before the French followed the English example. 
But while the descendants of the Norman conquerors, who appro- 
priated nearly all the best lands of England, are still in possession of 
their vast estates, in France the lands of the nobles were divided 
among the people in the great revolution of 1789 ; and it is not im- 
probable that the people of England, if forced into a revolutionary 
conflict with the ruling aristocracies, will naturally employ the same 
revolutionary measures to have those vast estates divided among the 
descendants of the former owners, which the French people found 
themselves compelled to employ. 

No society can long keep its equilibrium that has at the one end 
such colossal wealth as, for instance, that of the Marquis of West- 
minster, with his annual income of more than $2,000,000, and at the 
other end full a million of penal paupers, several millions more of all 



24 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

kinds of laborers just on the verge of pauperism, and all of them 
suffering from impurity and ignorance ; that hoards in the \evj centre 
of its civilization thousands upon thousands of men almost as fierce and 
lawless as the Goths and Huns that overran Europe under Attila, or 
the Tartars of Tamerlane, or the wretches of Faubourg St. Antoine, 
while it lavishes the money that should be spent at home, upon their 
physical and intellectual improvement, in Afghan, Crimean, Abyssin- 
ian, and Zulu wars, in enormous salaries of useless kings and queens, 
and extravagant subsidies and dowers expended with the same pro- 
fusion on all their children and relatives ; that,' forced on the one 
hand to make franchise more and more universal in the House of 
Commons, still retains, on the other hand, the only hereditary cham- 
ber in Europe, the House of Peers, a titled plutocracy, holding its 
vast entailed estates free of all military or civil duties, enjoying all 
the benefits of the feudal system without performing any of its 
duties, and whose only purpose of existence seems to be to veto 
every reform proposed by the representatives of the people in the 
House of CoiTxmons. 

But the worst stain on the escutcheon of Great Britain, and its 
greatest danger, lies in its treatment of Ireland, a vital part of its 
own immediate bodily organization. There has been for two and a 
half centuries, and there is now in Ireland an amount of suffering, 
changing into downright disloyalt}^ to the British government, fully 
equal to tlie suffering and consequent disloyalty which put Louis 
XVI. on the guillotine. This suffering and discontent in Ireland is 
produced by substantially the same causes which heralded the French 
revolution, nam.ely, the holding of lands in large bodies by a few 
indi^^.duals ; but in Ireland the evil is aggravated by the fact, that 
even those few land-owners are non-residents, and spend the money 
derived from their leaseholds in all other countries except Ireland, 
whereas in Scotland and England most of those land-owners are resi- 
dents, and spend their money at home. In Ireland, the ownership of 
the lands was originally in the people, and was alienated from them 
and vested in a few persons, by a most outrageous system of confis- 
cation on the part of England, after the battle of the Boyne. In 
other words, the feudal system of land tenure, with its laws of entail 
and primogeniture, was /orcerZ upon Ireland long after it had become 
a settled affair in England by the conquest, and the Irish have never 
been disposed to submit to it. Besides, the development of industry 



HISTORICAL. • 25 

in England nnd Scotland, which in those countries has to a degree 
softened the tj^ranny of the feudal system, has never been extended 
to Ireland, and hence that tyranny has been there doubly felt. 

Just let any American consider these facts : that there are in Ireland 
about twenty million' acres of land, of which six and a half millions 
are owned by two hundred and ninety-two persons, nine million six 
hundred and twelve thousand acres by seven hundred and forty-four 
persons, and one million three hundred and ten thousand acres by 
twelve persons. That is to say, ten hundred and forty-eight persons 
o^Mi seventeen million four hundred and twenty-two acres out of the 
twenty million acres of land which constitute Ireland ; and of these 
ten hundred and forty-eight persons, nearly all are non-residents. 

For this unnatjral state of affairs there is only one remedy, a 
remedy to be apphed to England and Scotland as well as to Ireland, 
and that is to abolish the laws of primogeniture and of entails. By 
such a measure the number of landlords will be largely increased at 
each descent cast, until at length the lands will become the property 
of those who cultivate them. In this way would gradually be re- 
moved the domination of the British plutocracy, and the people be 
restored to power and the control of their own government. The 
immediate and natural remedy for Irishmen suffering those evils is 
to emigrate to North or South America, Australia, or to islands in 
the East or West Indies. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 



With the downfall of the feudal inverted pyramid, there was for 
some time also hope that Germany would emerge from the rule of 
despotisms and rise to political freedom in the same degree as it had 
always successfully vindicated for itself intellectual liberty. The 
revolutionar}' movement of 1848 began brightly enough, and, indeed, 
was at one time on the eve of success ; but that same deplorable 
lack of unit}'- and that same local State pride which put so many 
hindrances in the way of establishing our own Union, defeated the 



26 LIBERT r AND LAW. 

German when in its fullest glory. Since then the political history 
of Germany has been one of continual retrogression ; so that now, 
through the natural results of the conflict between France and Ger- 
many, and the maintenance of a large standing army, it is enslaved, 
even worse than it has been for centuries, under' imperial rule. The 
extinction of all local self-government under the supreme law of the 
Imperial code, and the terrible conscription system of the landwehr 
organization, multiplying taxes and servitudes, drives the despairing 
people by hundreds of thousands annually to seek refuge from 
tyranny by abandoning their native land. 

It is one of the sarcasms of the spirit of history, that the victory 
of the Germans in the Franco-German war should have resulted in 
Germanizing France, as it were, and in Frenchifying Germany. 
With the close of that war France became one of the most indus- 
trious, frugal, economic, non-speculative nations of the continent ; 
while Germany grew wild over speculative schemes of the most des- 
perate character, grew extravagant, spendthrift, socialistic, and, 
above all, anti-American. France kept up her traditionary love for 
the United States ; the second German Empire has treated us with 
contempt ever since its first erection, and impotently struggles to 
prevent her people from emigrating to our country to escape military, 
social, and aristocratic despotism. 

France turned devout, and went on extraordinary pilgrimages ; 
Germany dropped into skepticism of the worst kind, and published 
books in glorification of Strauss and others of the same ilk. The 
French Republic tried to keep on good terms with both the Catholic 
and the Protestant Churches ; the German Empire scowled on all 
Churches. Strange to say, however, within the very latest times, 
under its republican form of government, — the best and freest that 
country has ever enjoyed, — France, while remaining devout, has 
boldly faced the danger of priestcraft interference with government 
affairs and predominance in the State, therein following the exam- 
ple of Italy under the inspiration of Garibaldi ; and Germany, 
while remaining indifferent to religion, has made efforts to renew the 
broken-off connection between Church and State. That this second 
German Empire will remain for a time a fixed factor of European 
politics admits of scarcely a doubt, but it is equally certain that the 
whole form of its government will have to undergo a change. No 



HISTORICAL. 27 

government that keeps a whole nation continually under arms, and 
expends yearly over one-third of its revenues for purely military pur- 
poses and warlike preparations, can maintain itself. The people will 
become exhausted by such hard riding, and will throw their riders. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. 

While the German Empire pretends to be, and in some measure 
is a compromise between a popular and a despotic form of gov- 
ernment, — leaning more towards the latter, however, — the Russian 
Empire presents the curious contrast of an unequivocally declared 
despotic form of government, and an equally unmistakenly out- 
spoken opposition to all other forms of government in its social 
organization. That part of the Russian population which still sub- 
mits blindly to the dictation of the emperor, calls him "Father;" 
the other part uses all sorts of means to send him, by dynamite or 
shot or shell, into another world, and are very properly termed Nihil- 
ists. In a subsequent chapter, on " Capital and Labor," I shall more 
at length discuss this anomaly ; here it is sufficient to simply point it 
out. 

The Russian Empire is the great bugaboo of European civilization ; 
it is at once the firmest colossus erected since the days of the Roman 
Empire, and yet the weakest, for the slightest shake may occasion 
its overthrow. It threatens not only Western Europe to the borders 
of the Rhine, but equally China to the coasts of the Pacific. 

With an area of 8,270,759 square miles, Russia has a population 
of some 90,000,000 souls. From these 90,000,000, representing an 
average of 13,000,000 of male adults, Russia takes an army of 
800,000 men ; withdrawing thus these 800,000 fi'om the revenue-pro- 
ducing population of the 13,000,000, and making them, moreover, a 
permanent burden on the remaining 12,200,000 men. This is the 
general effect of the military system of Europe. 

Russia withdraws 800,000 of her best men from agricultural, in- 



28 ' LIBERTY AND LAW. 

dustrial, and commercial pursuits ; Germany withdraws in the same 
manner some 500,000 men, France nearly the same number, Italy 
some 690,000. In short, the armies maintained by all the govern- 
ments in Europe, on a peace footing^ — ostensibly to defend each 
nation against some supposed aggressive neighbor, but in fact to 
keep their subjects in slavery b}^ military power, — number nearly 
four million men, as follows, using round numbers : — 

Russia 800,000 men. 

Turkey 200,000 " 

Germany (exclusive of all reserves, to about the same number) . 500,000 " 

France (exclusive of all reserves, to about the same number) . 500,000 '• 

Italy 690,000 " 

Austria-Hungary 350,000 " 

Denmark 40,000 " 

Great Britain (exclusive of some 2 10,000 militia and volunteers) 1 50,000 " 

Greece 30,000 " 

The Netherlands 65,000 " 

Portugal 35,000 " 

Spain . 100,000. '« 

Sweden and Norway 170,000 " 

Switzerland (exclusive of the landwehr, which count some 

92,000) 120,000 " 

Making a total of . . . 3,750,000 men. 

And these are the most able-bodied men to be found in their respec- 
tive countries, and are taken away from their proper pursuits in life 
and .thrown as a burden upon the tax-paying, citizens, — nay, not 
only a burden, but a constant threat and danger, for these armed sol- 
diers lose all sense of a common fellowship with their fellow-citizens, 
and are ready at any moment to shoot them down like dogs. The 
financial burden which this system of standing armies imposes upon 
the people I shall discuss more at length in a subsequent article, on 
" Capital and Labor." 

In many respects the United States and Russia present points of 
resemblance. We also have an absolute despot, but that despot is 
the law-making power. We have also individualistic tendencies of 
every description, but — excepting the late upgrowth of corporations 
threatening our liberties — our people still practically have liberty 
under the law. But in one essential respect we are (and let us hope 
that we ever may remain so) utterly dissimilar to Russia, and this is, 



HISTORICAL. 29 

that we do not maintain a standing army of soldiers, — although our 
potiticians compose an army more expensive than our few thousand 
enlisted men, who constitute merely a nominal army, and even as 
such are always subordinate to the civil power. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE IRREPEESSIBLE CONFLICT IN EUEOPE. 

From all the foregoing, it must appear clearly to ever}' attentive 
reader that the continent of Europe is apparently on the eve of a 
world - historical conflict. It is hardly possible that the various 
nations named above can keep up their present armies ; and not only 
that, but also endeavor to outrival each other in the building of shot- 
proof navies, and the construction of fortifications, large and small 
arms, munitions of war and equipments, at an immense and mostly 
useless expenditure, without provoking war and bloodshed, and 
entering upon the conflict for which they are so well prepared. 

And what is all this contest about? It sounds ridiculous, but in 
truth the prime cause of this general military statics of Europe lies 
in Turke}', at present a comparatively insignificant part of the 
European continent, with a population in Europe of only nineteen 
millions, but with a magnificent debt to capitalists in Europe of 
some $800,000,000, to pay which she exhibits an annual deficit of 
$45,000,000. 

This explains clearer than anything else the extraordinary interest 
the British Empire takes in the maintenance of Turkish rule in 
Europe ; for no man of sense will, in these days of railroad com- 
munication, pretend to reecho Napoleon's saying, that Constantinople 
is the key to the world. The Suez Canal of itself, not to speak 
of other systems of communication, broke down that Napoleonic 
view of the value of the golden horn of the Bosphorus. 

What Great Britain wants is the $800,000,000 advanced to Turkey 
by the confiding British capitalists, through the agency of the Roth- 
schilds and others. Now these $800,000,000, Turkey, with its annual 
deficit, is of course unable to pay. Russia? Well, Russia has not 



30 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

good credit in the money market either; and it is, moreover, on 
purely strategical grounds, inadvisable to allow her free and full 
possession of what remains of Turkey in Europe, since such posses- 
sion would be a constant danger to all of Western Europe, and 
seriously threaten the British possessions in India, as well as the 
Chinese Empire. 

Hence there is only one great power left in Europe which can 
accomplish the combined purpose of properly swallowing Turkey in 
Europe and paying a part of Turkey's debt to the capitalists of 
Great Britain, and this power is the double-headed monarchy of 
Austria-Hungary, at present under the protection of the new German 
Empire. Now, as Russia wants Turkey badly, and as Austria-Hun- 
gary has been made to realize, ever since the days of Sadowa, that 
she must ultimately give up the German part of her dominions to the 
German Empire, and look for territorial compensation in an east- 
wardly direction, — that is, towards that same Turkey which Eussia 
has been watching, with prey-lusty eye, ever since the days of Peter 
the Great, — it is very clear that, sooner or later, the final struggle 
for the possession of Turkey in Europe will result in a conflict be- 
tween Austria-Hungary and Russia, in which the German Empire 
will, of necessity, side with the former power, and take its German 
territory in payment for its services ; and the British Empire will lend 
its aid also to the same power, on condition that the new possessor 
of Turkey in Europe assume also a proportionate share of the Turk- 
ish indebtedness. The Russian power in Europe will be broken and 
crippled in this contest. 

Into this mighty struggle, which is daily drawing nearer, nearly all 
of those four million of European soldiers will in all probability be 
drawn, and every nation engaged in it will be required to tax its 
financial strength to the utmost. The human mind shudders in con- 
templation of the infinite misery and suffering which this conflict is 
doomed to bring over a whole continent ; and the only gleam of light 
shining through the darkness is the possibiUty that the shock may be 
so terrible, both in its military and financial aspects, as to compel, 
early in the struggle, a general disarmament, and thus force the era 
of war to come to an end by its own hand, as it were. It would be 
a new illustration of the dialectic movement which pervades all finite 
things and phenomena. Allow anything to run to its extreme limit, 
and it will turn into its very opposite. When life has reached its 



HISTORICAL. 31 

highest development, it begins to change into death ; and from death 
springs up new life. And thus a time must come when war will have 
attained such fearful and destructive power that it must give way to 
a blessed era of peace, and the settlement of national controversies 
by an international court. 



CHAPTER Xn. 

THE UlSriTED STATES. 



In the political organization of our own country, the most promi- 
nent and singular feature that presents itself is tlie fact, that our 
political constitution, our form of government, was an absolute crea- 
tion of reason. It was not pieced together out of an hereditary, 
accumulated set of laws or rules of political administration ; it is 
not the lawless growth of ages, but a rationally considered and de- 
termined form of government, made to fit a certain contingency. 
The code of Moses is, in this respect, the only one that has a similar 
origin. The legislation of the Hebrews did not arise gradually out 
of circumstances, like that of other nations, but was fixed complete 
at once, to suit the miserable, degraded condition into which they had 
fallen as slaves in Egypt. The government estabUshed in Paraguay by 
the Jesuits, and maintained from about 1700 to 1775, when it was 
shamefully broken up b}'' Spain and Portugal, — upon the abrogation of 
the order by Clement XIV., — may, however, also be classified with 
these a priori constructed forms of government ; and in some meas- 
ure, also, the Inca government of ancient Peru. Both of these political 
structures will be treated more at length in another chapter, in the 
Second Part of this book. 

Philosophers of great repute have denied the possibility of such 
an origin for a political constitution. Looking merely at the utterly 
irrational organization of the European monarchies, — the whole 
structure of which has reference only to the supreme welfare and 
monopoly of the ruling family, — and accepting these sad memorials 
of human cowardice and ignorance as glorious monuments of human 
power and wisdom, they have denied the possibility of any other 
origin of political organization, and laughed to scorn the attempt of 



32 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the French revolutionists to erect a political fabric on principles of 
reason. 

And yet here stands history, with the purely rationally conceived 
government of Moses, of singular power and duration, if its small 
territorial dimensions are taken into consideration, and the United 
States, with nearly a century of history, more marvellous in its splen- 
dor and progress, despite all drawbacks, than the history of any other 
political organization in the world. Nor does history furnish an 
instance of a form of government under which the governed lived 
more contentedly than under the government of primitive Peru, or 
that of the Jesuits in Paraguay. 

It is to be held one of the greatest blessings, that the founders of 
our republic were thus enabled, under the peculiar exigencies of the 
case, to erect a new government of a federative republic altogether 
on principles of reason ; and the only thing to be regretted is, that 
they did not carry out this principle in full, by making rational organ- 
izations for the several separate States, by abolishing all laws for the 
perpetuation of slavery, bj'' fixing the laws of money and commerce 
independently of traditional notions, and by establishing a complete 
code of laws, — even as Napoleon established his code for France, — 
without the phantom of an unknown common law, which it is absurd 
to presume that the people should be able to follow, since the most 
distinguished judges of the different courts. State and Federal, have 
been and still are continually announcing contradictory decisions 
upon the same questions of law and equity, which are commonly 
known in law as vexed questions. 

So far, therefore, as those great men followed purely the dictates 
of reason, their labors have been successful beyond precedent. So 
far as they followed the vagaries of tradition, on the other hand, 
they left the door open to the growth of monej'ed monopolies and 
other forms of despotism, that are showing their corrupting influence 
more and more every day, as well in class legislation as in the growth 
of ignorance and physical disease, and to root out which this book 
has been written. It is easy to see how it chanced that they thus 
neglected to carry out the supreme rule of their political conduct in 
the details of law administration. Our form of government being a 
double one, the more extensive Federal form naturally attracted their 
chief attention, and the separate State organizations, with their exclu- 
sive management of "domestic affairs," engaged but to a local and 



HISTORICAL. 33 

limited extent the consideration of statesmen ; and the anomaly of 
uniting these States under a purely rational form of government, while 
allowing them to retain most of their historical and traditional legis- 
lation, escaped notice. These traditional features, it must be I'emem- 
bered, had been engrafted upon the several States that entered the 
Union while they were under monarchical rule, and thus their legisla- 
tion partook — in some States more and in some less — of the English 
feudal character. They became members of the Union with these 
feudal features and these EngUsh monarchical laws, with the barbarism 
of an unknown common law, of colonial slavery, and other elements of 
prerogative power, judicial despotism, and money-monopoly worship, 
that still taint their political systems, and which they in their turn 
engrafted more or less upon the new States that organized subse- 
quently under the Union. All these feudal chains were incompatible 
with the idea of the new republic. It is amazing that this should 
have excited no attention or discussion, and that the people should 
have voluntarily saddled themselves with that huge body of legal 
despotism, the common law of England, of the true nature of which 
they were necessarily utterly ignorant. And yet, they continued to 
put these shackles on their own young limbs, as one after another 
new States, with their constitutions, laws, municipal charters and ordi- 
nances, county and township regulations, organized themselves upon 
the old colonial foundations instead of the foundations of their own 
new federative republic. 

Hence have naturally arisen constant conflicts and collisions be- 
tween municipal and State laws, colonial laws and new State consti- 
tutions, State laws and Federal laws, and Federal laws and the United 
States Constitution ; conflicts that have been a permanent source of 
uncertainty to the citizens as to the nature and extent' of their rights, 
and to their local bflScials as to the extent of the powers conferred 
upon them. Hence all kinds of usurpations and monopolies have 
grown up, as a natural result of the want of proper checks and bal- 
ances and well-adjusted State constitutions. 

The Federal and State constitutions do not contain any practical 
limitations to the sovereign power of Congress and the State legisla- 
tures as law-makers. Within fifty years past, the public lands and 
the public moneys of the people have been given away by their ser- 
vants, the law-makers, to railways, banking, navigation, and other 

3 



34 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

corporate despotisms that now control all branches of our govern- 
ment. 

It is evident that unless our form of government is to result in a 
failure, this state of things must be remedied by the amendment of 
our State and Federal constitutions. We must invent and determine 
ior our separate State organizations, organic laws that shall not inter- 
fere with the general form of our government, and yet meet all the 
demands of a well-regulated State; that shall not merely afford 
security to persons and to property against direct violence and fraud, 
but protect men also from illegal monopolies, from legislative usurpa- 
tions, from fraud, impurity, and ignorance ; that shall not merely in 
'negative apathy permit the individual reformers and laborers in the 
•fields of science and knowledge to prosecute their investigations, 
experiments, and researches, but shall extend to them proper aid, 
w^hereby all their labors may be joined in one common effort for the 
advancement of mankind, under a true and proper form of repre- 
sentative government. The unexpectedly rapid development of our 
States and the sudden growth of cities press with resistless force for 
the establishment of such a perfected system of State governments 
adapted to their own support. This is what the labor organizations 
mean when they clamor for changes which shall secure to them 
healthier dwelling-places and more time for self-culture ; this is what 
outraged communities mean when they protest against the corrupt 
monopolies of the age, and the overshadowing despotism of railroad, 
banking, and telegraphic corporations that have neither local nor 
political connection with them, and yet place themselves beyond all 
regulations of order, safety, and economy from the communities to 
which their roads or their other monopolies have become a necessity ; 
and herein alg^o lies the solution of the dangers threatened by the 
increase of the ignorant classes, which always accompanies the 
increase of monopolies and aristocracies. 

At the same time we must amend our Federal organization in such 
a way that it shall at once allow the separate States to make these 
additional laws, and itself assist in enforcing them. Thus, it is nec- 
essary for a true system of federative government to protect all 
citizens in their common rights of intercommunication by land, seas, 
oceans, rivers, and all highways. The railways, roadways, telegraphic 
lines, and all other channels of intercommunication and commerce 



HISTORICAL. 35 

must be, in a federative republic, under the direction and control of the 
federative and State governments. The framers of our present Con- 
stitution knew this well enough, but the clause which they put into it 
to carry this out was so vague and general, that it has remained without 
any practical effect. The people, who are the true source of all poljti- 
•cal and other power in a republic, control the State ; and if the State 
■controls the intercommunication between its citizens, the great fran- 
chises of free trade and commerce and of national money-making 
for national circulation will be preserved to the people, and not 
granted away to usurping monopolies, which thereby acquire by 
legislative grants the power to tax the people without their consent, 
in direct violation of the Federal Constitution. 

I purpose now to ti;ace out the fundamental principles and chief 
requirements of these, our State organic laws, to" show the necessity 
■of a radical change, and detail the duties of a political Common- 
wealth in making provision for the utmost development of the physi- 
cal, intellectual, and moral faculties of its citizens ; all the time, 
however, observing the limits within which such provisions may be 
made without trenching upon the rights of the individual, for whose 
l)eneflt alone each State and our Federation was organized. It is in 
this latter point that my work will find its relation to the commen- 
taries of our great constitutional expounders, as well as its distinction 
from the arbitrary dogmas of writers like Plato, Rousseau, Voltaire, 
•and others, who may have had invention enough to propound gilded 
theories of an ethical government, but lacked legal training to deter- 
mine its limits by the universal conception of law as applied to the 
government of a State designed to belong to a federation of several 
States. 

In part, even our present forms of State legislation transcend the 
limited sphere of mere direct protection against violence and fraud. 
Nor can it well be otherwise so soon as people come in close contact 
with each other. So long as men live at considerable distances from 
each other, on tracts of land large enough to prevent the immediate 
perception of injurious influences upon each other, — by improper 
construction of their dweUings, for instance, or uncleanliness and dis- 
ease of their bodies, — and so long as commerce and money have not 
yet collected into great centres, and thus established despotic monop- 
ohes, legislation for protection against such injurious influences and 
monopolies will not even be thought of. Such was the general con- 



36 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

dition of the people of the United States in former times ; and when, 
gradually, larger cities began to grow up, and railways, banks, and 
commerce to assume gigantic proportions, it did not. at first occur to 
their inhabitants that another class of laws had become necessary, 
than the class which had been sufficient to secure life, liberty, and 
property from direct assault and tyrannic oppression. It was only 
constant and continued experience, pressing for the inauguration of 
measures that were found necessary, which dictated a legislation that 
was rather merely submitted to than accepted from a comprehension 
of its necessity and justice. In this way municipal ordinances regu- 
lating the building of houses, the behavior of persons, the power of 
corporations, and a thousand other matters that had been considered 
_ the exclusive concern of individual notion and inclination, were 
tacitly acquiesced in, and taxes for sanitary, reformatory, and other 
purposes paid witholit very earnest opposition. Nevertheless, the 
doubt of their legality always remained ; nor was the general prin- 
ciple of these measures ever laid down and determined. It seems 
strange, indeed, and yet it is none the less true, that there really was 
not and is not any difference in the general principle of legality 
underlying these measures, and that the only doubt and difficulty 
respecting them arose and arises from the consideration of the nec- 
essary space to be allowed for the inhabitants of cities and villages. 
It is the distance, the extent of space between one farm and another,, 
which in their cases renders it difficult to perceive that there is an 
actual injury done by one man to another, an infringement perpetrated 
upon the individual's right to life, liberty, and property. We can 
see easily the direct connection between the injury and the deed 
when one man kills or assaults another in the street, but it is rather 
a difficult matter to trace injurious effects to the neighbor who builds 
a vitriol or a gas factory near my house, or builds an adjoining dwell- 
ing with insufficient drainage, etc. ; and nevertheless the encroach- 
ment upon my life, or it may be upon my property, is the same in 
either case. 

Should such amendments to the organic laws of the States of the 
Federation as I purpose here to sketch, be adopted, results v^ould 
follow surpassing even the dreams our most sanguine political pa- 
triots have dared to indulge in. A body of men and women would 
be raised, healthy, and intellectually cultivated to a degree which 
would make them as nearly as possible inaccessible to physical and 



HISTORICAL. 37 

moral evils, fit exponents and representatives of the idea that gave 
life to them. 

The world of nature it would change and turn into a grand land- 
scape-garden, aesthetically representative of the world of mind and 
ireedom under equal laws, the fit habitation of such noble beings as 
men can become, a true kingdom of God on earth, every element of 
nature subject to the free and harmonious directing powers of the 
human mind. Far from disfiguring or making ungainly the aspect 
of nature, as they do now, men's habitations — the cities, houses, 
streets, alleys, boulevai'ds, etc. — would fall into harmony with their 
natural sites, and by architectural beauty, order, and cleanliness, 
irradiate loveliness in every direction. 

It would make all men equal, under just laws, by regulating their 
intercommunication through money and commerce in a rational man- 
ner, by raising up the lowest to the highest degree of culture, and 
securing to each individual, through an organized system ©f labor, 
sufficient leisure to acquire the greatest freedom and knowledge. 
The existing rivalry between rich and poor would thus cease of itself, 
and find its amelioration, if not its annihilation, in a common coopera- 
tive effort to realize the highest good and happiness for each one and 
for all. 

In its ultimate results it would dispel from the minds of men every 
element of darkness and superstition. For in the highest school of 
the State, the university, the highest science, the philosophy of 
knowledge, would be taught, and would illuminate every region of 
human knowledge by analyzing that knowledge itself. The foolish 
fear of an angry God would change into adoration of His love and 
wisdom, and the superstitious dread of the future world into serene 
and happy assuredness of immortal, infinitely continuing revelations of 
new beauty. Men would no longer harass their minds and souls with 
idle speculation, but would work out their true mission: to attain and 
■enjoy the greatest good, happiness, and wisdom. For, to enable 
men to do this should be the exclusive final end and aim of a gov- 
ernment of law. 

Even as the grand aim of the divine government of the universe 
is manifest^ by wise, harmonious, and progressive laws of develop- 
ment to work out to the fullest perfection all forms, faculties, and 
intelligences of the creatures on earth, so a human government of 
law should resemble as nearly as may be this divine government of 



38 LIBEETY AND LAW. 

nature, and should, therefore, in its oi'ganic constitutional code, pro- 
vide for the attainment of the greatest good, happiness, and wisdom 
by the people of the State ; and as the permanence and certainty of 
the laws of nature are necessary for the preservation of the divine 
order of nature and the lives of all the creatures existing in it, so the 
certainty and permanence of the organic laws. of a State are necessary 
for the preservation of human order oi* true freedom under the law, 
so that all persons in the State may attain and enjoy the greatest good- 
and happiness of which their organization and faculties are capable, 
without in any way interfering with the proper freedom, activit}^ and 
happiness of others. 



PRINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 39 



GEISTEKAL PEI:N'CIPLES OF A FEDEEA- 

TiYE goyer^me:n^t. 



CHAPTER I. 

FUNDAMENTAL PEINCIPLES. 

The fundamental principle of such a constitutional code is: — 

Affirmatively: To provide for the harmonious, temperate, fit, and 
best use attainable of all the faculties of mind and body of each person^ 
so that each one may have, under the law, the possibility of attain- 
ing, without any of the hindrances of ignorance, impurity, fraud, or 
tyranny, the greatest good, happiness, inspiration, wisdom, beauty, 
love, and perfection of which his faculties and organization are capa- 
ble : first, for himself ; second, for his family ; and, third, for the 
society or State in which he lives. 

Negatively: To prohibit each person from intemperate, inharmo- 
nious, reckless, hurtful, or unfit abuse or use of either or any of the. 
faculties of his mind and body. 

These two propositions will indicate and test the true objects of all 
codes, constitutions, and laws, and the true character of all legisla- 
tive, judicial, and executive governmental operations for the govern- 
ment of men under State and federative systems of government. 



CHAPTER II. 

ANALYSIS OF FUNDAMENTAL PRmCIPLES. 

The essence of man is freedom. It is this that distinguishes him 
from all other beings, and makes it impossible to mistake him for a 



40 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

mere animal. All other beings are complete in bodily organization ; 
■man alone is incomplete. All other bodies are sufficient and perfectly 
determined in their structure ; but the body of man is insufficient, 
and simply infinitely determinable. What he is at birth we know not ; 
"what he is to be, will be wrought out in him by his own freedom and 
activity, under just and comprehensiAre laws. 

It is by token of this freedom, when manifested in the world of nat- 
ure, that man proclaims his presence over the gulf of many thousand 
years, and in the rudest tools or arms of prehistoric times announces 
his existence. History is nothing but a record of man's strife for the 
attainment of this freedom in its highest degree externally through 
f oi-ms of government ; culture, nothing but an endeavor to realize it 
internally. And since neither development can be realized sepa- 
rately, the establishment of a State organization, which shall enable 
man to secure the fullest freedom of mind, of person, and of activ- 
ity, must necessarily accompany and be accompanied by higher 
culture and progress. It is only in a properly constructed State 
organization that men can attain that complete self-determination, 
that development and subjection to his free control of all the facul- 
ties of his mind and body, whereby he will be enabled to use them 
fitly and harmoniously, under judicious and wise laws, for the realiza- 
tion of the greatest good and happiness life is to give and express, 
and to constitute himself a truly rational being. 

No one individual in a State can be secure in his freedom under 
the laws, unless every other individual is prohibited from interfering 
with it. Had each individual attained full development of his moral 
nature and freedom, this prohibitory character of law would be un- 
necessary, for the free wills of all would of themselves harmonize in 
the idea of the greatest good. But as this full development does not 
-exist, and is rather the very object to be realized, the inharmonious 
and unfit use of the mental and bodily faculties of the one individual 
•constantly interferes with the freedom and progress of the others, 
and thus needs the prohibition of its inharmonious exercise. Men, 
in estabUshing governments of law,' must adopt the plan manifested 
in those laws that are established upon fixed principles, of universal 
application, and announce themselves in unvarying succession. 

Upon the foregoing fundamental principles, affirmative and nega- 
tive, all laws and governments of law are grounded ; through them 
alone the achievement of an ultimate ethical and legal organization 



PRINCIPLES OF A FEDEEATIVE GOVERNMENT. 41 

within tlie State is made possible. Another six thousand years might 
pass away, and bring manldnd but little nearer to its ideal, unless 
these principles were carried out in a State organization and even- 
tually established over the whole extent of a federative republic. 
Great moral and intellectual advancement of the race is but a dream, 
so long as there are ignorant and wicked wretches on all sides in a 
State to check and injure the development of higher culture. So long 
as filth, folly, and impropriety everywhere offend the purer, wiser, 
and more cultured persons, there can be but limited and obstructed 
advancement ; and legislation has hitherto looked upon these mat- 
ters as if it had no concern with them at all. Thus the highest of all 
arts and the grandest of all sciences, the art and science of states- 
manship, in the noblest sense of the word, — the art and science of 
organizing men into a complete harmonious union and activity, 
wherein each one shall have all his faculties developed to their highest 
practical possibility, and wherein all shall artistically and scientifically 
combine to make their common property, the earth, a beautiful and 
harmoniously cultivated whole, a paradise, not of primitive nature 
and idleness, but of cultivated reason, scientific knowledge, and 
joyful labor, — has hitherto not even been possible, for want of State 
organizations wherein to establish and apply it. 

In no other way than by means of such a State and federative 
organization can the citizens achieve their true destination as free- 
men, worthy to enjoy "Liberty and Law" under federative govern- 
ment. In no other way can the gigantic conflict between men and 
uature be successfully carried on to victory, their forces and knowl- 
edge being severallj^ cultivated to their highest perfection, and 
assigned to specific parts of an organized plan. 

It is only by means of a practical code of self-supporting laws, 
providing for the purit}^, health, training, education, protection, 
political equality, and happiness of each citizen, and regulating under 
general laws all intercommunication between all persons, that the 
people can be fully protected from the selfishness, tyranny, extor- 
tion, and ambition of the many monopolizing, fraudulent, and cor- 
rupt corporations, always vigilantly watching every opportunity to 
rob the mas.ses of their rights, franchises, and liberties for the 
benefit of the few, who rapaciously swallow up the resources of the 
States and the nation, by using the government itself as the chief 
instrument of their tyranny, by bribing and corrupting the traitorous 



42 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

agents of the people — the State and Federal legislatures — to grant 
to their monopolies the public lands, the public charters, the common 
pubhc rights of intercommunication, of banking, of telegraphing, 
and of using the public highways and the public domain with electro- 
magnetic telegraphs and steam railways. 

The individual alone ma}^, to some extent, realize his destination 
and ideal in his own internal culture ; but as a member of humanity, 
and citizen of a State, he cannot achieve even this, his own end, 
perfectly, unless he assists in achieving the destination of his kind by 
cooperation and united effort, under wise and just laws, and in keep- 
ing down all forms of despotism in his State. The subjugation of 
nature and all her turbulent elements is a task utterly beyond the 
power of individuals, and until their subjugation is completed no 
individual can rise to his own highest development. 

To attain these ends, the constitutional codes will have to apply 
the above fundamental principles to the three functions of man: 
as, first, a physical body in the world of nature ; second, an intelli- 
gent being in the world of intelhgence ; and, third, a social being in 
the world of the State ; and hence it will have to legislate in its posi- 
tive character concerning — 

1. Public hygiene. 

2. Public education. 

3. Public intercommunication. 

And in its negative character concerning the — 

1. Establishment of a Federal code. 

2. EstablishhSent of a code of laws for the States. 

3. Establishment of a federative and international code, to secure 
Liberty and Law, against all the powers of despotism, to all the 
nations of the world. 

For reasons which will appear in the course of this investigation, 
I shall consider, first, the negative requirements of such constitu- 
tional codes, and after that, proceed to the more lengthy considera- 
tion of its positive requirements. 



PKINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 4S 

CHAPTER III. 

THEIR REALIZATION IN A FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC. 

It is very evident, from all the preceding, that great and many re- 
. forms must be instituted in the present form of our federative gov- 
ernment, if such a scheme as I have suggested is to be realized. 
There must be changes made in the form of the Federal government 
itself, and in the forms of the government of the several separate 
States. But there is only one mode in which such changes can be 
constitutionally inaugurated. This mode is the amendment of our 
present National Constitution, and, secondarily, of most of our State 
constitutions. 

Now, it is true, that such amendments may be made in the case of 
our Federal Constitution simply by getting Congress to formulate them 
and submit them to the States for their indorsement. But I am very 
sure that such a method would be altogether impracticable for the 
establishment of such thorough, and yet necessary changes in our 
form of government as are outlined in this book. 

I propose, therefore, that a National Constitutional Convention be 
called by the people of the several States, to remodel our present 
Federal Constitution in accordance with the requirements that have 
grown up within the last century. 

I am well aware that there is a general objection to what is called 
"tinkering" with the Constitution handed down to us by the wise 
founders of our republic, — an objection founded on the conserva- 
tive, let- well-alone disposition of human nature, — but the most in- 
tensely conservative man, if he is otherwise fair-minded, cannot but 
confess, that a century of a nation's life — and especially such a 
century as our nation has lived — must needs make necessary vast 
changes in all the departments of its government. Nor can it be 
disputed, that of the two modes of amending our Constitution, that 
by a general national convention alone can be effective. 

Our Congress, let it be remembered, is not a body like the British 
Parliament, which has the power, substantially, of changing the un- 
written Constitution of Great Britain at any time. The fact that we 
have a written, permanent Constitution, places the power of amend- 
ing it in the hands of the people alone, and is its greatest safeguard. 



44 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

Nor can I perceive any great danger in calling a National Conven- 
tion. That cry seems to be raised mainl}^ by politicians, monopolists, 
and corporations, who fatten under the present order, or rather dis- 
order, of things, and dread any change. It is, however, precisely 
to check their power that such changes as are suggested in this work 
have become indispensable. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EEQUIEEMENTS OF A FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC. 

It has usually been held, since the days of Montesquieu, that the 
only requirements of a federative republic are a proper regulation 
between the general government and the several States which com- 
pose the federation, and the division of the power of the general 
government into three departments, — the executive, the legislative, 
and the judicial. 

Now, I hold that this is not by any means sufHcient. The first 
proposition — namely, that the relation between the general govern- 
ment and the separate State organizations composing it must be 
clearly enunciated in a written constitution — is, of course, incontro- 
vertible. 

But much may be said about the propriety of leaving the organiza- 
tioii of the three departments into which the government is to be 
divided, open to chance or mere caprice. Take, as an instance, the 
legislative department, — our Congress of the United States. Now, 
the Federal Constitution was the work of only thirteen States. At 
present, however, those thirteen States have expanded into thirty- 
eight States and ten Territories, if we include Alaska ; and more 
States are to come from these Territories. To remedy this defect, I 
propose to divide our one Union into, say, five sub-Unions. This 
suggestion raviy seem audacious in the extreme to many of my read- 
ers, but on mature reflection the necessity of this proposed change 
in our present Union will become apparent enough. 

We all are striving towards the same end, — a world-confed- 
eration. How attain it? The miniature model was built up by 



PRINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 45 

the fathers of this republic. The foundation was: a number of 
States organized into one Federal Union. But the thirteen States 
which went to make up the original miniature model have since ex- 
panded into thirty-eight States and ten Territories. Now, how shall 
we preserve the federative principle, which is the basis of our repub- 
lic, and at the same time keep this colossus of States manageable? 
I see no other practical mode than that just suggested, of a division 
of the one Union of the United States into, say, five sub-Unions, with 
a common congress, judiciary, and executive for each. Having 
achieved this problem, we can readily, in the course of time, organize 
all the States of North and South America into similar Unions, with 
locally independent congresses, judiciaries, and executives, and unite 
them with ours into one government, — an American government. 

In course of time again, the same phenomenon will exhibit itself in 
the other continents of the world, and realize the same end. Then, and 
only then, can we say that the prophecy of Christ, which Tennyson 
has so aptly worldlitied, has been fulfilled, and that, in spite of 
scoffers, there has arisen into life a " Confederation of the World." 

Now, the radical changes I suggest in the departments of our 
federative government are somewhat as follows: — 

I. The organization of the executive power should be remodelled 
so as to do away with those four-yearly presidential elections, that 
keep perennially alive political partisan excitement. If the Union 
as it exists at present is subdivided into, say, five sub-Unions, each ■ 
one electing its own president, congress, and judiciary, then those 
five presidents would choose, at every congressional session, a presi- 
dent for the whole Union out of their number, and those four-yearly 
excitements would disappear. Then, next, the executive power should 
be so curtailed as to make elective as many as possible of the offices 
now filled Vty appointment. I may instance the offices of postmasters- 
and revenue-collectors. In this way the executive would become 
again what the founders of the Constitution intended him to be : the 
chief executive of the law-making power of Congress ; whereas 
under the pi'esent state of things he is simply a figure-head, so far 
as the welfare of the people is concerned, and useful only as the 
head of his partjs whose leaders he can reward by the gift of Federal 
offices. 

II. The organization of the legislative power should be remodelled 
so as to change an elected member of Congress, from being a mere re- 



46 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

ceiver of bribes, into an active political representative of his constitu- 
ents. This also can be most readily effected by a division of the 
whole Union into, say, five sub-Unions, each of which will have a sep- 
arate congress. The members of these five congresses, when meeting 
together, would constitute the great Congress of the whole United 
States. As a matter of course, it is of importance that this Con- 
gress, while representing every local section of the country, should 
also be as small in numbers as practicable. In regard to the lower 
house this is easily enough attainable. But a greater difficulty arises 
when we approach the Senate. No country on the earth ever had ' 
such a Senate as that called into being by the Constitution of the 
United States. Two senators from each State, no matter how geo- 
graphically large or populously filled that State may be ! Little 
Rhode Island on a par with gigantic Texas ; populous New York 
on an equality with Nebraska! Now, this whole anomal3'^ would 
be swept away at once by the subdivision of the Union into the 
five Unions proposed by me ; for then each of the five sub-Unions 
might choose by general election a specified number of senators, 
without regard to the number of States represented, or to geographi- 
cal extent. 

III. The. reconstruction of the whole judiciary system of the United 
States. 

The Supreme Court of the United States, being at present no longer 
able to transact the business devolving upon it under the Federal 
Constitution and laws, a portion of the original and appellate juris- 
diction of this court should be vested in another court. 

Hence the new Constitution should, above all, provide for what I 
may call an Interstate National Court, to remove all jurisdiction from 
the present Supreme Court of the United States over Federal constitu- 
tional questions, controversies between States, and between citizens 
of the United States and any State, or the Federal government, and 
all questions of conflict between State and Federal constitutions. 
This jurisdiction should be appellate only, except in controversies 
between States, and on writs of mandamus, quo warranto, prohibi- 
tion, etc., in which the jurisdiction should be original. 

This new Interstate National Court might be composed of twenty- 
five judges, five to be taken from each of the sub-Unions of the 
United States. 

The present Supreme Court of the United States, instead of nine 



PKINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 47 

justices, ought to have at least twenty-oue, the senior justice being 
chief justice. 

The circuit judges should also be increased to the number of at least 
twenty-one, and the circuits should be increased to the same number. 
Each one of the Supreme Court justices should hold court with his 
circuit judge and the District Court judges for two months in each 
year. 

Four supreme justices and four circuit judges should hold an 
intermediate appellate court for two months at the capital of each 
one of the five sub-Unions of the United States, to hear and determine 
all appeals, quo warranto^ certiorari^ mandamus, etc., with appeals in 
certain cases to the Supreme Court of the United States, or to the 
Interstate National Court, as the case may be. 

The Supreme Court should hold its sessions for six months in each 
year at the Federal capital city, as an appellate tribunal ; and there 
should be five chambers, for different members of the court to hold 
five courts for the more speedy hearing and decision of cases. The 
justices might be allotted to different court-rooms, thus: Room 
number one, with three justices for hearing cases in admiralty; room 
number two, with five justices for hearing cases in equity; room 
number three, with three justices for bearing cases of revenue, pre- 
emption, and mining claims; room number four, with three justices 
for hearing patent-right and copyright cases ; room number five, with 
seven justices for hearing all other cases not hereinbefore allotted to 
the other rooms. All cases decided in these sevei-al rooms might be 
certified to the twenty-one justices sitting in banc, on demand of 
either party. 

At the request of one-third of the justices in either one of said 
five rooms, any case therein decided might be referred to the whole 
court of twenty-one justices, sitting in banc, for a more full exam- 
ination and final decision, subject to a writ of error to the Interstate 
National Court in all cases where said court has appellate jurisdiction. 

The details of this plan can be easily framed, and the jurisdictions 
will embrace all persons in the republic who are aliens or citizens of 
the States. Each State, as well as the Federal government, should be 
subject to an action at the suit of any citizen, or alien, or corpora- 
tion, or State, for any just claim or cause of action whatever. I 
would, moreover, urge that the salaries of the judiciary be increased 
so as, at any rate, to be fairly equal to salaries received by other 



48 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

officers or the government. The Supreme Court of the United States 
is certainly as high and august a power as that of the executive. 
Why tlien should it not be paid as well? Far better to pay judges a 
fair salary, and provide a proper pension for them in their old age, 
than expose them to temptation by curtailing their salaries. 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE NECESSITY OF A CODIFICATION OF LAWS. 

When, in the original introduction of "Libert}^ and Law," I an- 
nounced my intention of applying the same fundamental principles 
established in that work in a subsequent work on State, National, and 
International Codes and Constitutions, I had in view an independent 
and more extensive book. But the present second edition of this 
work gives me a chance to say in a condensed form what I wished to 
say on those subjects, — a form which may be more acceptable to the 
general reader than an extensive work on codification. I shall 
therefore proceed to sketch the outlines of such a system of codifi- 
cation as may be applied to the Federal, State, and departmental 
forms of government that will be peculiar to the United States under 
its new Constitution. The advantages which would accrue from such 
a codification, if systematically effected, will be apparent at once to 
every law^'^er and judge. Its vast political importance cannot be 
readily seen, and would probably be realized fully only after it had 
been in operation for some time. 

The first thing to be done after the completion and adoption of the 
codes would be to abolish altogether, in every part of the land, that 
unknown quantity called Common Law, of which no citizen who is not 
a lawj^er can possibl}^ know much, since it is not printed in one book, 
but fragmentally scattered through several thousand volumes, and of 
which lawyers and judges know verj^ little more than laymen, as is 
shown by the fact that they are alwa3^s at loggerheads with each 
other as to what this common law is, whenever a case calls for its 
application. It is of this common-law system that the English lau^ 
reate says : — 



PKINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 49 

" So Leolin went; and as we task ourselves 
To learn a language known but smatteringly 
In phrases here and there at random, — toiled, 
Mastering the lawless science of our law, 
That codeless myriad of precedent, 
That wilderness of single instances 
Through which a few, by wit or fortune led, 

, May beat a pathway out to wealth and fame." 

And forty years' practice of law in courts of every degree in the 
United States authorizes me, I think, to say, that the poet has not in 
the least exaggerated the " codeless myriad of precedent" that con- 
stitutes the common law of England. At the very beginning of our 
government, the States that had been British colonies, and had 
not yet had time to make codes of their own during the struggle or 
after the close of the Revolution, may have acted prudently in con- 
tinuing this system ; but there is surely no reason why it should be 
retained now. 

Not only that it is unknown and inaccessible to the citizens, who are 
nevertheless required to regulate their actions by it, — it being one 
of those pi'ofound legal axioms, which only law3''ers can undei'stand, 
that ignorance of the law cannot be pleaded as an excuse in court, — ■ 
but it conceals a most subtle foe to free institutions, by making 
possible the establishment of a judicial despotism. In monarchical 
countries, the danger arising from the exercise of arbitrary power on 
the part of the judiciary is perhaps not so threatening, but rather 
appears somewhat like an offset to the despotism of the crown, and 
hence as a protection to the hberties and rights of the people ; but 
under our republican form of government judicial despotism should 
be carefully guarded against. I cite the conflicting decisions of the 
Federal Supreme Court on the legal-tender quality of treasury-notes, 
wherein it was decided, at first, that the Legal-Tender Act of 1862 
was unconstitutional, 1 and then very soon afterwards it was very 
properly decided, that the same act was constitutional (1870).2 

Again, in the case of Murdock & Clark v. Governor Woodson and 
Attorney-General Ewing (1874), the same court overthrew the Con- 
stitution of Missouri of 1865, b}^ construing the words, ^ "The 
General Assembly shall have no power, for any pui-pose whatever, to 



8 Wall. 603. 2 Legal-Tender Cases, 12 Wall. 457. » Art. 11, sect. 15. 

4 



50 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

release the lien held by the State upon any railroad," to mean that 
the General Assembly had that power ; whereby the people of the 
State of Missouri were robbed of over $26,000,000 of money justly 
due the State by railroad companies, ^ by the exercise of arbitrary- 
judicial power. . 

A great number of other cases could be cited, showing the 
gradual decline of that court toward judicial despotism. Thus 
the common-law system gives almost unlimited scope to judicial 
discretion, and judges have taken the precaution to announce, 
long years ago, that the judicial judgments of the courts are not 
to be inquired into by reason of any fraud on the part of mem- 
bers of the court rendering the decisions. From the justice of 
the peace, through all the gradations of judges, up to the highest 
court, the judges are not liable to an action for the most erroneous 
judgments, under the common-law system. For that system permits 
the application of the facts proved to almost every question of law in 
so undefined and uncertain a way as to leave the decision entirel}' to 
the discretion of the judge. Hence, when you go into court with 
your case, you don't really make a generally known and commonly 
understood code of law your arbitrator, as you innocently suppose 
you do ; but the man who happens to fill the judicial chair in the court 
where your case comes up for trial can decide your case as he 
pleases. He can falsely state the facts in your bill of exceptions, 
and 3^ou have no remedy against the judge. I may add that an 
inevitable result of the judicial despotism thus fostered by the 
common-law S3^stem is to destroy the confidence of the people in 
the integrit}'^ of the whole judiciary. 

Wherever, in history, we find one man or several men combined 
together for a common purpose, striving for unchecked power, we 
find men devoting themselves with excessive zeal to hunting up oflSces 
for and granting favors to their friends and relatives. In all depart- 
ments of government this is a dangerous tendency, but in the 
judicial department it is most specially so. And, worst of all, the 
people are beginning to be awakened to these corrupt influences, and 
hunt for lawyers who have the ear of the court, and who can get 
decisions to suit the client, right or wrong. 



1 22 Wall. 351, 374. 



PRINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 51 

The general abolition of the common-law system will make general 
codification over all the United States a necessity, and terminate the 
present abuses of judicial discretion. 

Under our duplex form of government we should, of course, have 
two main codes, — Federal codes and State codes, — each State, how- 
CA'er, framing its own code of laws quite independently. This latter 
point, I must confess, seems to be somewhat of an obstacle to codi- 
fication for a republic which has already thirty-eight States as its 
members. But the difficulty, I am inclined to think, will vanish as 
soon as it is resolutely grappled with, as I shall show directl3^ 

The Federal codes should contain all the laws of the republic that 
are of general application and administered by the Federal courts ; 
but it should contain nothing but those laws. The rules and regu- 
lations of the several departments of government, which at present 
fill up more than nine-tenths of the statutes of the United States, — 
the rules that govern the State, Interior, Treasury, "War, Navy, 
and Postal Departments, — are utterly out of place in a code of the 
general laws of a country, and ought to be placed in a separate, 
carefully prepared Departmental code, called in New York the Polit- 
ical Code. This separation may appear rather captious, but is really 
of great practical importance. If we take out from the present 
Revised Statutes of the United States all those departmental rules 
and regulations, we shall have a small volume of Federal legislation, 
which every citizen can handle conveniently and afford to purchase. 
This is by no means an insignificant matter. The law ought to be 
accessible to every citizen ; and not merely accessible in theory, but 
practically. This is, however, absolutely impossible with our present 
statute-book of over 1,200 large pages. It is virtually a sealed 
book to all citizens of the United States except the few who have 
made law their special profession. The Code Napoleon or the New 
York Code, on the other hand, — to illustrate my meaning by the 
most striking examples of what can be accomplished within the sphere 
of law, in the way of popularit}^ and clearness, — is accessible and 
intelligible to every citizen of France, or of New York, who can 
read. You can put either in your pocket (so much for convenience), 
and read it for the sake of its hterary beauty alone (so much for its 
popularity). It appears to me, that if the departmental rules and 
regulations, which are only of special application, were tdien out of 



52 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the Revised Statutes, it would reduce the size of the volume to one- 
tenth of what it is now ; and if a commission of clear-headed lawyers, 
were to condense the remainder of those statutes into the short, clear 
sentences that distinguish the Cinq Codes, or the six codes of 
New York, a citizen of the United States might really be enabled to 
know — what the law supposes him to know under penalty — the law 
of his country. Considering that the Code Napoleon was framed 
and carried into practice within a few years in France, and that it 
has undergone only very few changes since its first introduction, in 
spite of the many political changes that France has passed through, 
our government certainly ought to find it an easy undertaking ta 
establish a permanent Federal code of laws for the United States ; 
more especially as we enjoy two vast advantages for the arrangement, 
of such a code : Firstly, in that we have a written Federal Constitu- 
tion on which to base it, so far as Federal legislation is concerned ;. 
and, secondl3% in that our form of government closely defines and 
limits the juiisdiction of the Federal courts. 

Such . a Federal code of laws would have four main divisions : 
a constitutional code, a civil code, a penal code, a code of prac- 
tice, with a glossary containing the meaning of each word in either 
code, to protect the people against conflicting constructions of the 
laws contained in the code. 

The constitutional code should be definite, and not embrace such 
provisions as these in the Federal Constitution : — • 

"Art. IV., sect. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every 
State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall pro- 
tect each of them against invasion, and on application of the legis- 
lature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), 
against domestic violence." 

Now, this clause in itself is wholly obscure, and leaves to the presi- 
dent, and also to Congress, a discretionary power which can be 
abused to an extent extremely dangerous to our republican form 
of government, as was witnessed in the late scandalous interference 
of Federal authority in the affairs of Louisiana and Arkansas ; and 
has been illustrated, indeed, throughout the whole period of i-econ- 
struction in the Southern States since the war of the rebellion. In 
another way, this power was abused by 7iot exercising it during the 
strikes of a few years ago. 



PKINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 53 

The interpretation of this section of Article IV. , and its application 
to the various cases that might arise under it, would thus form a nec- 
essary clause of the constitutional code. 

Sections 1 and 2 of the same article — the first authorizing Congress, 
•" by general laws, to prescribe the manner in which the acts, records, 
and proceedings of the several States shall be proved, and the effect 
thereof," and the second providing that "the citizens of each State 
shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the 
several States" — clearly need the same exposition in the constitu- 
tional code ; as, indeed, do several other clauses. 

I need only specify a few more here. For instance, the power of 
the Federal government to collect its taxes by priority to the collection 
of the State taxes, and the mode of enforcing such collection, has 
been constantly subject to dispute, and decided differently in dif- 
ferent States. Whenever the question arises anew, therefore, it is 
brought up anew before the courts, at a great expense to the parties 
concerned. The attorneys on each side are able to quote decisions, 
in their favor, and quote interpretations from the standard text-books 
on the subject in behalf of their respective causes ; and it depends 
entirely upon the discretion of the court before which such a cause is 
brought, how it will be interpreted. A Federal code, fixing the law 
on the subject by a few explicit provisions, would settle the question 
at once. 

The same can be said of the naturalization question, which also 
has never as yet been uniformly settled. Quite a number of States 
admit foreign-born citizens to the right of suffrage although they 
have resided only one year in this country, while the United States 
government requires a residence of five years before it naturalizes 
foreigners. The question that here arises is this : whether the action 
of those States is not in conflict with the Federal Constitution, and 
liable to lead to serious political entanglements. It seems somewhat 
•contradictory that a person may be a citizen of Missouri, for example, 
and yet not be a citizen of the United States ; or by becoming a citi- 
zen of Missouri, become also a citizen of the United States, in spite' 
of the naturahzation laws. 

Then there is that clause of the Constitution which gives Congress 
the power to regulate commerce among the several States, — a power 
that has never been enacted into law, and the framing of which into 



54 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

statutory provision would form a code of public intercommunication 
on the principles laid down in this work. 

In short, the Federal constitutional code would define the relations 
between the Federal government and the several State governments 
as they would be announced in the new National Constitution. 

The Federal civil code would present the whole body of the civil 
law, as has been done in California and New York, with the other 
codes requisite to administer the laws of the Federal government. 

The Federal political code would establish, in statutor}^ form, laws 
interpreting the rights, duties, and obligations of official persons under 
the present laws, and as they are to be fixed in the new Constitution 
and laws referred to by me in the present work. As instances of this 
class of much-needed legislation, I may mention National and State 
sanitary laws, educational laws, laws authorizing a citizen to sue the 
State, laws definitely fixing the status of an American citizen, the 
rights and duties of citizenship, when it is forfeited by expatriation, 
the relation of women to citizenship, and the status of male and female 
minors in regard to citizenship. There is a vast field open here for 
wholesome National and State legislation, which I need not discuss in 
detail. I may add, however, that the proposed Federal civil code 
ought to define once for all the legal character of the marriage rela- 
tion for all the States of the Union. This would, amongst other 
beneficial results, secure the abolition of the unnatural institution of 
polygamy, that still exists in parts of our country. 

The Federal penal code could be readily constructed on the basis 
of the existing United States statutory provisions relating to crime ; 
simply shaping them into a compact and intelligible form, and sup- 
plementing them by further provisions when necessary. 

The details of a Federal code of civil and criminal practice would 
be out of place in a book like this. The State code should, so far as. 
possible, be the same for each State in the Union. There must, of 
necessity, be some difference on trivial matters in the thirty-eight 
State codes required for our republic ; but as California and New 
York have, as above stated, already created codes which may readily 
be adopted in all the States, each other State might simply make 
special modifications for any necessary differences. 

A State code has already been prepared for the State of New 
York by counsellors of eminent ability, — D. Dudley Field, Wm. 



PRINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 55 

Curtis No3^es, and Alexander W. Bradford, — which was reported to 
the Legislature of that State in February, 1865, by the surviving 
code commissioners under the act of April 6, 1857, Mr. Noyes hav- 
ing died shortly before the completion of the report. The works are 
now embraced in six volumes, — the Code of Civil Procedure (in- 
cluding the law of evidence), the Book of Forms, the Code of Crim- 
inal Procedure, the Political Code, the Penal Code, and the Civil Code. 

California adopted the codes of New York in 1870, and they have 
proved a great success in that State. The civil code was adopted at 
the session of the Legislature in New York in 1879, but by accident 
the governor failed to sign it. There can be no reasonable doubt 
that the Legislature of that State will reenact the bill to adopt the 
civil code at its next session, and that the governor will sign it, so 
as to make it the law of that State. This will abolish the common. 
law and equity systems of discretion and fraud in that great State. 

The New York and the California codes M'ill then furnish models 
for all the other States, except Louisiana, which adopted the civil code 
in 1808, based on the same principle. 

The establishment of a general National or constitutional code in 
advance of the States that have not yet made codes, would not only 
greatly facilitate the establishment of the latter, but would also pre- 
vent much of the existing antagonism between the United States 
statutes and the statutes of the several States.' There can be no 
doubt that such a harmony between the State and Federal codes 
would materially decrease vexatious litigation by limiting appeals 
and writs of error from the State and Federal courts. Under the 
present system we have as many different systems of law, so to 
speak, as there are States ; that is, some thirty-eight systems of law,. 
in many essential points differing from each other. Hence the New 
York merchant who sells to customers in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, 
or California must be, in cases of assignments, familiar with all 
the technical details of the assignment laws of each of those States ; 
and if he sells in all the thirty-eight States of our Union, he must famil- 
iarize himself with all the technicalities of the assignment laws of 
those thirt,v-eight States. This is exceedingly vexatious, especially in 
a country where intercommunication between citizens is so extensive 
as it is in the United States. As a consequence, there are very few 
citizens of one State now who know what the laws of another State 
are ; and if the}^ immigrate into it, or have business to transact in it, 



6Q LIBERTY AND LAW. 

they ai'e forced to undergo the tedious and almost impossible task of 
studying its statutes. Many acts and omissions constitute criminal 
offences in one State which are innocent in other States ; and unless 
the immigrant or traveller chances to be aware of this, he may subject 
himself to arrest and criminal punishment for doing what he, in his own 
State, had always been led to consider perfectly harmless. Even pro- 
fessional lawyers find it no easy task to master the different law- 
systems of the different States to which their practice may extend ; 
not to mention the expense of purchasing the books that pretend to 
develop those s\'stems. 

The only obstacle in the way of this most essential reform seems 
to be that clannish State pride which led to the war of the rebellion. 
But if one of the States of the Union thinks it derogatory to its dignity 
to adopt a common civil and criminal code with all the other States 
of the Union, and insists upon a particular and specific code, why 
should it not also lay claim to a particular and specific system of 
medicine, or its own particular and specific dress and dialect of 
speech? — thereby triumphantly exhibiting its " sovereignty." 

There w^as a time when this species of local pride really did run 
into this extravagance, though never here to the extent it did in 
Europe. Even yet, travellei-s may pass from one county to another 
in Great Britain, and find themselves unable to make their wants un- 
derstood, so tenaciously do the people retain their dialect ; and to this 
day the dress of a German peasant is a sure indication of the district 
from which he came. 

But that time is rapidly passing away for this republic. The late 
civil war has done at least this much good : that it has quenched the 
spirit of localism and roused in its place the spirit of universal hu- 
manity, which is the life and soul of our form of government. One 
law and one government, bearing equally and justly upon all men, is 
the grand task which the United States of America is destined to 
achieve. 

There need be no apprehension that such a uniformity of the State 
codes will I'esult in centralization, and kill off the local independence 
of our several States. No one can be more opposed to such a gen- 
eral centralization than I, who recognize in the federative form of our 
govei'nment the form that must ultimately unite all the civihzed 
nations of the earth into what Tennyson grandly and prophetically 
calls the "Confederation of the World." Even as I propose that 



PRINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 57 

all the States of our Union should have the same code of laws, — 
everywhere uniform, — so will it ultimately become necessary that 
each separate nation of the world-confederation which is to be, 
should adopt a uniform series of codes, differing only in minor de- 
tails. And will any one say that if all the States in the world had 
the same code of laws, this would render them less sovereign than 
they are now? It would remove class legislation, lobbying, bribery 
of all kinds, and diminish the expenses of legislation and judicial 
proceedings at least three-fourths. Let us, then, have one code of 
laws for our federation, and one code of laws for each of the States 
that compose it. This will give Congress and our State legislatures 
oi)portunity to devote themselves to their appropriate duties, instead 
of selling out the public lands and public moneys to railways, banks, 
and other corporations for bribes paid to their members by the lobby, 
and time to remove that confusion of the laws which leads people to 
gi\'e up the mere attempt to read and learn therh as utterly hopeless. 

III. The establishment of an International code, finally, in the 
manner indicated by me, is, of course, a matter which the American 
people can aid only by encouraging every attempt made in that direc- 
tion. That it is not the dream of an impractical idealist, however, 
but a fact shaping itself more and more into complete form, is suf- 
ficiently demonstrated every day by the changes occurring in inter- 
national relations. Within the last few years some ten or twelve 
international congresses have been held, and followed by very grati- 
fying results. One of these especially, the postal congress held at 
Berne, Switzerland, in September of 1872, has proved in the most 
practical manner, that the settlement of all international financial 
transactions can be brought quite as readily under the rule of law as 
the financial dealings between individuals. 

Postal affairs were in former times conducted by nations, quite 
as much as all other affairs, on the principle that each nation ought 
to endeavor to make the most out of all other nations, without regard 
to law or justice. It was force which ruled ; or, at times, cunning, 
when it overreached force. The postal congress of Berne was the 
first great symptom of a new era for the nations of the world. The 
United States of America, all the countries of Europe, Egypt, and 
the Spanish and Portugese possessions in Africa, and all the Brit- 
ish colonies in Australia and elsewhere, were by that congress 
united into a general postal union, which is wholly governed, so 



58 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

far as international postage is concerned, by the laws established 
by the congress and ratified by the different nations represented 
in it. Since then, by providing for an international exchange of 
postal orders, it has even gone so far as to lay the foundation 
of an international system of banking ; so that we may confidently 
expect, that within a comparatively short time it will no longer 
be considered impracticable to establish also international clearing- 
houses for the financial transactions of the world, the first sugges- 
tion of which was made by me in the first edition of ' ' Liberty and 
Law," and which was then decried as simply a visionary project. 
Time has shown that nearly all proposed reforms suggested by me in 
that first edition have become recognized as indispensable by the 
foremost nations of the civilized woi'ld. 

Next in importance to the Berne congress I consider the sanitar}?- 
eongi-ess held at Vienna, and attended by some ten nations of 
Europe and Asia, for the purpose of establishing a sanitary code to 
prevent most effectively the spread of epidemics from one country to 
another. This congress has also achieved some important results, 
and I may be pardoned hei-e for recurring to my proposed general 
sanitary code for the United States, and to ask those of my critics 
who have attacked it so severely, why that proposition should be held 
extravagant here, when in Europe it was 3^ears ago found necessary 
to establish an international sanitary code? 

Apart from these special international congresses, three have been 
held within the last seven j^ears for the sole purpose of establishing a 
general international code of Public Laws for all the States of the 
civilized world. 

Such an international code may therefore be looked upon as one 
of the great blessings that a very near future must Ijring to the 
human race. Its adoption will necessarily lead to the organization of 
an international judiciai-y, to decide upon all questions possibly aris- 
ing under that code, and thus prepare for the general abolition of war. 

The first step in the advance of civilization was the supersedure of 
the rule of force by that of law, and the consequent establishment of 
legal representative governments. The second, and by far greater 
step occurred when the thirteen original States of this Union, instead 
of remaining separate organizations, and settling their quai'rels 
amongst each other by war, founded this federative republic, and 
established a Supreme Court to settle all those quarrels by law. 



PRINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 59 

The final step to be taken for the perfection of human govern- 
ments will be to constitute all the States of the civilized world into rep- 
resentative confederations, subject to the decisions of an international 
court in cases of conflicting claims, under a code administered by 
those international judicial tribunals, and thereby to banish the rule 
of force altogether, and substitute the rule of enlightened reason 
and justice in lieu of war, with all its horrors and brutalities. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONCLUDING EEMARKS. 

The experience of the past ninety-one years, since the adoption of 
the Federal Constitution, proves that it is necessary to have checks 
and balances against every form of abuse by the officers whom the 
people may choose as their servants. On February 14, 1870, I sub- 
mitted to the Judicary Committee and the Committee on the Revision 
of the Federal Statutes, in both Houses of Congress, the following 
act, to prevent corrupt action or judgments on the part of the Fed- 
eral justices or judges, which can be enlarged so as to reach State 
judges. State and Federal legislators, and all persons holding office 
under State, Municipal, or Federal governments. There can be 
no valid objection to such acts of Congress, or similar acts of the 
State legislatures. They are necessary to preserve the liberties of the 
people : — 

AN ACT to maintain and preserve the purity of the administration of justice, 
of equity, and of law, in all the courts, judicatories, offices, departments, 
and tribunals of the United States of America, aud to prevent and punish 
all fraud, official corruption, bribery, perjury, subornation of perjury, and 
all official and judicial t3a-anny and oppression, to the end that a pure, 
honest, economical, and efficient administration of the judicial depart- 
ment may be forever secured, for the common benefit and protection of 
the people of the United States of America. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United States 
of America, in Congress assembled, as follows : — 
Section 1. Any justice, chief justice, judge, officer, or other person exer- 
cising any judicial function, judgment, or discretion in any court, judicatory, 
office, or department of the government of the United States of America, who 
shall knowingly or designedly deliver, enter up, or assent to any order, 



60 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

decision, judgment, or opinion in any case, claim, demand, or proceeding 
before any court, judicial oflficer, executive officer, or officer of the United 
States of America; in which judgment, order, decision, opinion, or allow- 
ance there shall appear any false statement or statements, material to the 
honest and impartial administration of justice, of equity, or of law, in any 
such particular case, claim, demand, or proceeding; or which judgment, 
order, decision, opinion, or allowance is knowingly or designedly based or 
founded, or pretended to be based or founded, upon any false assumption, 
statement, or averment of facts or circumstances, material to the just, legal, 
or equitable decision of any such case, proceeding, claim, demand, or allow- 
ance, or material to the impartial administration of justice, of law, of equity, 
or of official action, prerogative, or power; then, in every such case, each 
justice, chief justice, judge, judicial officer, executive officer, or officer of any 
description, holding or exercising any function or power, judicial, executive, 
or otherwise, under the United States, shall be deemed guilty of a violation of 
his oath of office, of perjury, and of a high crime and misdemeanor against 
the United States of America. 

Sect. 2. Any justice, chief justice, judge, or other officer referred to in the 
first section of this act, who shall knowingly or designedly violate his oath 
of office, or designedly refuse to do manifest justice or equity in any case 
or proceeding referred to in said first section of this act, shall be deemed 
guilty of perjury, and of a high crime aad misdemeanor against the United 
States of America. 

Sect. 3. Any justice, chief justice, judge, or other officer referred to in the 
first section of this act, who may ignorantly violate the provisions of the first 
or second sections of this act, shall not be subject, to conviction or punish- 
ment for such violation of either or any of the provisions of the said first or 
second sections of this act, unless he shall adhere to a judgment, decision, 
order, or opinion already assented to or delivered by him in any case, claim, 
demand, or proceeding, containing or founded upon any false statement or 
statements, material to the proper or just decision of, or judgment, order, or 
allowance in any such case or proceeding, or material to the impartial admin- 
istration of justice, of law, of equity, or of official prerogative or judgment 
in any such particular case or proceeding, after his attention has been directly 
called, in a printed address served upon him in such case, to the particular 
false statement or statements contained in any such opinion, judgment, 
order, or decision in any such motion, case, hearing, trial, or proceeding 
referred to in the first section of this act; in which case any such justice, 
chief justice, judge, or officer referred to in said first section of this act 
shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and of a high crime and misdemeanor 
against the United States of America. 

Sect. 4. Any justice, chief justice, judge, or other judicial officer or person 
referred to in the first section of this act, who shall assent to, or announce or 
deliver any order, opinion, or decision of any court or tribunal, inflicting 
any fine or imprisonment, or disbarring or disabling any attorney, solicitor, 
proctor, or counsellor of any Federal court for a contempt of such court, or 



PRINCIPLES OF A FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 61 

other alleged offence against such court, or the justices or judges thereof, by- 
reason or on account of the publication or service of the said printed address 
referred to in section 3 of this act, or the service or delivery of the same 
to the justices, judges, or judicial officer or other person constituting any 
court or tribunal of the United States, shall be deemed guilty of official 
tyranny and oppression, and of a high crime and misdemeanor against the 
United States of America. 

Sect. 5. Any justice, chief justice, judge, or other judicial officer referred 
to in the first section of this act, who shall, by his manner, vi^ords, conduct, 
or other signs, such as want of attention, sleeping, reading papers, books, 
letters, cards of invitation to parties or dinners, or writing letters, while 
sitting to administer justice on trials, or hearing of cases, motions, or other 
proceedings, in any Federal court or tribunal ; or who shall express, imply, 
or show, directly or indirectly, any passion, prejudice, partiality, favor, hos- 
tility, contempt, scorn, derision, disdain, or encouragement for or against 
either party, or the attorney, counsel, proctor, solicitor, or advocate of either 
party to any suit or proceeding in any such tribunal or court, shall be deemed 
guilty of a high crime and misdemeauor against the United States of America. 

Sect. 6. Hereafter all the cases, causes, motions, and proceedings of the 
Supreme Court and of the Circuit Courts of the United States of America, 
shall be reported under the supervision of the attorney-general of the United 
States, who shall appoint, by and with the concurrence of the Senate of the 
United States, all the reporters of the Supreme Court and of the Circuit 
Courts of the United States; and the entire printed statement, brief, and 
argument for the party adverse to the judgment or decision made or rendered 
in each particular case, together with the entire printed motions, in each 
case, for a reform of the judgment, order, or decree, or rehearing of any case, 
shall be printed and reported with the opinion of the court, in type of the 
same size as that -used for the reporting of the opinion in such case, and the 
said attorney-general shall cause the head-notes of the points of the opinion, 
and of the brief and argument opposed to the opinion, to be made and affixed 
to the report of each case, and form a part of the report, to be printed as 
reports of decisions ; and no Federal court shall hereafter appoint a reporter 
of the decisions of such court, or of the opinions of the justices or judges 
thereof, but all such reporters shall be appointed by the attornej^-general, by 
and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States ; and any 
reporter so appointed who shall fail or neglect to perform his duties under 
this act shall be liable to a fine of five thousand dollars, to be recovered in a 
qui tarn action in the name of the United States, one-half of such fine to be 
paid over, when collected, to the informer. 

Sect. 7. Six copies of the record and maps, and of the briefs and argu- 
ments on both sides, in each case heaixlor pending before the Supreme Court 
of the United States, the Court of Claims, or other Federal court in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, shall be deposited, when printed, or as soon thereafter as 
practicable, with the librarian of Congress ; and it shall be the duty of the 
reporter of each court to make such deposit within a reasonable time after 



62 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the printing of such record, and briefs and arguments, and any failure or 
neglect to perform such duty shall subject him to a fine of one thousand dol- 
lars, to be recovered in a qui tarn action, as aforesaid, in the name of the 
United States, one-half of such fine to go to the informer. 

Sect. 8. There shall be allowed as a salary to the reporters to be appointed 
under this act, the following sums per annum : To the reporter of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, per annum ; to the reporter of the 

Court of Claims, per annum ; to the reporter of the Supreme Court 

of the District of Columbia, per annum; to the reporter of the Cir- 
cuit Court of the United States, in each circuit, per annum, except 

in the circuits embracing New York, California, and Massachusetts, who shall 
receive each per annum. 

Sect. 9. The salary of the clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States, 

in lieu of fees, shall be per annum, and such clerk shall have his own 

clerks and assistants, and pay them out of his salary. The fees of the said 
ofHce of the said clerk of the Supreme Court shall be paid into the treasury 
of the United States semi-annually, on the first Monday of July and January 
of each year, and a full and correct account of all fees, perquisites, and gains 
of said clerk's office shall be rendered^on said days, respectively, to the 
treasurer of the United States, verified by the oath of said clerk ; and any 
failure by said clerk to perform the said duties required by this section shall 
incapacitate said clerk from holding his said office, or any other office of 
honor, trust, or profit under the United States, and subject him to a fine of 
not less than one thousand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars, to be 
recovered in a qui tarn action in the name of the United States, one-half of 
which shall go to the informer. 

Sect. 10. Any person who shall bribe or attempt to bribe, or to corruptly 
influence or attempt to influence, by any means whatsoever, any justice, 
chief justice, judge, or judicial officer, or other person referred to in the first 
section of this act, to decide any case, motion, or proceeding in any court of 
the United States, or other tribunal or judicatory of the United States, in 
favor of either party to such case, motion, or proceeding, shall, on conviction 
thereof, be sentenced to the penitentiary for a period not less than ten years ; 
and any judge, justice, chief justice, or other officer or person referred to in 
the first two sections of this act, who shall accept any such bribe, or submit 
to any such infiuence, shall, on conviction thereof, be sentenced to imprison- 
ment for life. 

Sect. 11. Any judge, justice, chief justice, judicial officer, or other person 
referred to in the first section of this act, who shall violate the provisions of 
the first, second, or third sections of this act, shall, on conviction thereof, be 
sentenced to the penitentiary for a period not less than five j'ears nor more 
than ten years. Any judge, justice, chief justice, or other judicial officer or 
person referred to in the first section of this act, who shall violate the fourth 
or fifth sections of this act, shall be subject, on conviction thereof, to impris-. 
onmeut in the penitentiary not less than six months nor more than five years ; 
and in case of any violation of the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth sections 



PRINCIPLES OF A FEDEKATIVE GOVERNMENT. 63 

of this act, the said party or parties, referred to in the first sectiou of this act, 
guilty thereof, or of either of them, shall, in addition to the penalties and 
punishment hereinbefore affixed to such crimes, be subject to impeachment 
before the Senate of the United States. 
This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage. 

Similar statutes might also be passed to punish executive officers, 
and members of Congress and of the State legislatures, who abuse 
their power in the same way. 



64 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



PUBLIC HYGIEN^E. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEFINITION OF PUBLIC HYGIENE. 

Public hygiene, b}^ its very name, excludes the treatment of 
hygiene as each private individual may choose to apply it to himself 
and family. It therefore does not concern itself with the special 
diet of persons, nor with their idiosyhcracies in the choice of medi- 
cines, but relates only to those subjects of health which are public, 
and affect all men equally. This, indeed, while it results from a 
mere sense of general justice, has its own particular significance in 
relation to the republican form of government of the United States, 
which, while it assumes to provide for the protection of the welfare 
of all, does not allow governmental interference with the rights of the 
individual. 

Keeping this in view, and considering the government in its relation 
to the universal requirements of the human body, public hygiene can 
have only one subject for its application under a system of Liberty 
and Law. This is to furnish to every individual the needs which his 
body requires for a healthy life in healthy purity. In other words, 
since man has only two such universal needs, air and food, govern- 
ment is in duty bound to guarantee to every citizen the air he 
breathes and the food he eats or drinks in the utmost attainable 
purity. In regard to all other things which individual men may 
think necessary for their health, — such as. drugs, — government can 
exercise only a negative duty, to wit, supervision. Government may 
supervise the sale of drugs, liquors, etc., and see to it that the 
purchaser obtains unadulterated what he desires to purchase, but it 
cannot prohibit an individual fi-om eating or drinking what he chooses. 

Governmental regulation of public hygiene treats, therefore, only 
of that'one universal necessity of all men, — food; but as this food 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 65 

is, in common language, always separated into two classes, — the food 
which we partake through our lungs and the food which we partake 
through our stomachs, — we also shall keep up these distinctions, and 
treat separately of the necessity on the part of government to pro- 
vide pure air and pure food (in the limited sense of the word) for 
its citizens. 

I shall speak of pui'e air first, because it is the more important, 
branch of public hygiene, seeing that we consume it in quantities 
infiniteh'^ beyond our consumption of food, and also because it more 
deserves governmental supervision, and indeed cannot be obtained 
without such supervision. Man's individual instinct, acting through 
nausea, is quite apt to tell him all he need know of the purity of 
food, but that instinct is not sharpened enough to detect impurity of 
the air. Again, my neighbor cannot interfere with the purity of my 
food, but he may, in hundreds of wa3'^s, affect the purity of the air 
in my house. Indeed, every inhabitant of a town or city is in this 
respect dependent upon all his fellow-inhabitants, and only law can 
give him the necessary security. 

I shall introduce the subject by one of its essential, but as yet 
little developed branches, — the branch which refers to weather and 
climate. 



CHAPTER II. 

WEATHER AND CLIMATE. 

In considering the subject of pure-air hygiene, in its universality, 
we find that we must include within its scope not only the atmosphere 
in our buildings and cities, but the whole atmosphere that surrounds 
the earth, — all its movements of storms, hurricanes, and electric cur- 
rents, and even the magnetic currents that pass through the earth, — 
as one of the main causes of the atmospheric changes. 

In other words, we must develop the science of meteorology, not 
merely for its own sake, and as a science by itself, but also as part of 
the science of ventilation and hygiene ; so that the whole of this 
globe of ours may, in course of time, be made inhabitable and 
healthy. Life must be made beautiful and healthy over the whole 

5 



66 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

earth. Naturally, our own immediate interest is centred in the 
United States and its climate ; but the earth is so constituted, that 
not a single part of it can attain perfect development unless all other 
parts are equally developed. This is a provision of nature whereby 
men are compelled to abandon their individuality and separately 
national clannishness, and to work together as a unity for one common 
object. It is a direct suggestion of the necessity for promoting the 
homogeneity of our race. 

Hence, grand as the direct results of our own weather signal-service 
have been already in the ten years of its existence, its greatest 
achievement is, unquestionablj'', that it has clearly shown its inade- 
quacy unless it is made an integral part of a world weather-system. 
The weather of the United States cannot be calculated beforehand 
luiless we know the weather phenomena of the equatorial as well as 
those of the arctic regions, and, indeed, of all the rest of the earth. 

But with the improvement of the climate in the now uncivilized 
parts of the earth we shall also witness, as experience has abundantl}^ 
shown, a gradual dawn of culture in those now benighted regions ; and 
in course of time the educated man of the European and American 
continents will no longer need to blush for his brethren of the less 
favored regions of the earth, to whom civilization has not yet fully 
revealed itself. 

And now let us turn to our more immediately practical branch of 
pure air, regardless of the elective, magnetic, and planetary influences 
that may affect it, its relation to the human body as the main element 
of its food, and therefore of human life itself. 



CHAPTER III. 

PURE AIR. 



The human body, being the material representative of the human 
mind, should, hke it, irradiate health and cleanliness, and in propor- 
tion as it does not do so it contributes to moral disease and impurity. 
There is no more effective propagator of immorality than the filth of 
crowded districts in cities : it infects the body with all the ph3^sical 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 67 

diseases that stir up vicious and low appetites and passions. Tlie 
law should protect every citizen against these injurious influences, 
and as they operate chiefly through tlie air, it is the duty of a State 
organization to secure to every citizen the needful amount of pure 
air wherever the co-residence of others tends to impair its natural 
purity. 

Pure air is, indeed, the foremost necessity of human life. Not 
only does man need it as food, — and as food he consumes in quan- 
tity six thousand times more of air than of all other food, — but also 
to preserve the normal temperature of the body, and cany off its 
exhalations.^ It is only of late years that the facts connected with 
the consumption of air by the human body have been mathematically 
ascertained and corroborated by experiments, particularly by Dr. 
von Pettenkoffer, the most eminent sanitary physician of Germany ; 
as, indeed, the whole science of public hj-giene is but a few j-ears 
old. The results ascertained disclose enormous figures. Whereas 
but thirty years ago, for instance, six hundred cubic feet of fresh air 
per hour were considered sufficient for each patient in a hospital, over 
two thousand cubic feet per hour have now been ascertained to be 
necessary ; an amount which — in such large buildings as hospitals nec- 
essarily are, and still more in crowded cities — only the most efficient 
S3'stem of artificial mechanical ventilation can secure. Not to provide 
for this constant flow of pure air throughout every house, street, and 
alley is to spread disease in every form from one body to another, 
and, moi-eover, to steep the whole population of a city into a contin- 
uous intoxication, the result of inhaling th'e poisonous carbonic acid 
gas infecting the air. 

From numerous experiments, made with men of different stature, 
Dr. Menzie found that, in a normal condition, from fourteen to eigh- 
teen respirations are made every minute ; others place the number at 
from thirteen to twenty-two. The quantfty of air drawn into the 



1 The quantity of air inhaled and exhaled by an adult in twenty-four hours 
amounts, on an average, to about 360 cubic feet, or 2,000 gallons. What we 
take in and give out during twenty-four hours in the shape of solid and liquid 
food occupies, on an average, the space of 5| pints, which is equal to jJ^p of 
the volume of the air passing through our lungs. Those daily 2,000 gallons 
of air, with their weight of twenty-five pounds avoirdupois, give us for one 
year 730,000 gallons of air consumed by an adult through the lungs alone. 



68 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

lungs at each inspiration varied from 40.7 to 46.7 cubic inches, sO' 
that Menzie considers 720 cubic inches about the average quantity 
inhaled every minute by a healthy man, and 500 that inhaled by a 
healthy woman. 

Now, let it be considered, that the fresh air, before it is taken intO' 
the lungs, is composed of 23.2 per cent of oxygen, 75.5 per cent of 
hydrogen, and about 1^ per cent of carbonic acid, besides a small, 
variable quantity of vapor of water ; and that when it passes out 
again, — some ten or twelve seconds after having been inhaled,— it 
contains a larger quantity of vapor, the same quantity of nitrogen, 
from eight to nine per cent of carbonic acid, and only from eleven tO' 
twelve per cent of oxygen. It thus appears that nearly one-half of 
the oxygen inhaled, in its passage through the lungs has been 
changed into carbonic acid, or from the life-giving element of the air 
into deadly poison. But when atmospheric air contains but 3.5 per cent 
of carbonic acid gas it is unfit to support animal life. Now, the air 
exhaled from the lungs contains 2.4 times that amount of the gas. 
This unquestionable scientific fact ought to convince, of itself, every 
person of the imminent danger of inhaling foul air, and of the abso- 
lute need of a complete system of private and public ventilation. 

But there is also an historical fact which may be cited for the 
benefit of those who will not accept facts of science. It is the most 
noted example of the deathly character of impure air, and is known 
all over the world as the horror of the Black Hole of Calcutta. It 
occurred in the year 1756, during the rebellion of the East Indians- 
against British rule, which was finally suppressed by Lord Clive. 

Calcutta, one of the British strongholds, had been compelled to 
surrender to the native rebel troops on the 19th of June, 1756, and 
its small garrison of 514 men, of whom only 174 were Europeans, 
had been taken prisoners. And this is what followed : One hundred 
and forty-six of these prisoners were driven into one of the dungeons. 
of the garrison known as the Black Hole, a room of only twenty 
feet square, or 1,600 cubic feet, and with only two small windows, 
and those obstructed by a veranda. It was the hottest season of the 
year, and the night uncommonl}' sultry even at this season. The ex- 
cessive pressure of their bodies against one another, and the intol- 
erable heat which prevailed as soon as the door was shut, convinced 
the prisoners that it was impossible to live through the night in this 
horrible confinement, and violent attempts were immediately made to 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 69 

force the door, but without effect, for it opened inwards, on which 
many began to give loose to rage. Mr. Holwell, who placed himself 
at one of the windows, exhorted them to remain composed both 
in body and mind, as the only means of surviving the night ; and his 
remonstrances produced a short interval of quiet, during which he 
.a,pplied to an old Jemantdar, who bore some marks of humanity 
about him, promising to give him 1,000 rupees in the morning if he 
would separate the prisoners into two chambers. The old man went 
to try, but, returning in a few minutes, said it was impossible, when 
Mr. Holwell offered him a larger sum, on which he retired once 
more, and returned with the fatal sentence that no I'elief could be 
expected, because '■'■ the nabob was asleep, and no one dared to ivake 
him." In the meantime every minute had increased their sufferings. 
The first effect of their confinement was a continued sweat, which 
soon produced intolerable thirst, succeeded by excruciating pains in 
the chest, with difficulty of breathing, little short of suffocation. 
Various means were tried to obtain more room and air. Every one 
stripped off his clothes, every hat was put in motion ; and these 
methods affording no relief, it was proposed that they all should sit 
down on their hams at the same time, and after remaining a little 
while in this position, rise all together. This fatal expedient was 
thrice repeated before they had been confined an hour, and ever}'^ 
time several, unable to raise themselves up again, fell, and were 
trampled to death by their companions. Attempts were again made 
to force the door, which, faiUng as before, redoubled their rage ; but 
the thirst increasing, nothing but "water! water! " was cried for. 
-The good Jemantdar immediately ordered some skins of water to be 
brought to the windows ; but, instead of relief, his benevolence be- 
came a more dreadful cause of destruction, for the sight of the water 
threw every one into such excessive agitations and ravings, that, un- 
able to be regularly served, each man battled with the utmost ferocity 
against those who were likely to get before him ; and in these con- 
flicts many were either beaten to death by the efforts of others, or 
suffocated. This scene, instead of exciting compassion in the guard 
without, only awakened their mirth ; and they held up lights to the 
bars in order to have the diabolic satisfaction of seeing the deplor- 
able contention of the sufferers within, who, finding it impossible to 
get any water whilst it was thus furiously disputed, at length suffered 
those who were nearest the windows to convey it in their hats to those 



70 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

behind them. It proved no relief either to their thirst or other suf- 
ferings, for the fever increased every moment with the increasing 
impurity of the air of the dungeon, which had been so often respired, 
and was saturated with the hot and deleterious effluvia of putrefying 
bodies, of which the stench was little less than mortal. 

Before midnight, all who were alive and had not partaken of the air 
of the windows were in lethargic stupefaction or raving with delirium. 
Every kind of invective and abuse was uttered, in hope of provoking 
the guard to put an end to their miseries by firing into the dungeon ; 
and whilst some were blaspheming their Creator with frantic cries of 
torment and despair, heaven was implored by others with wild and 
incoherent prayers, until the weaker, exhausted by these agitations, 
at length lay down quietly and expired on the bodies of their dead 
and agonizing friends. Those who still survived in the inward part 
of the dungeon, finding that the water had afforded them no relief, 
made a last effort to obtain air, by endeavoring to scramble over the 
heads of those who stood between them and the windows, whei'e the 
utmost strength of every one was employed for two hours, either in 
maintaining his own ground or endeavoring to get that of which others 
were in possession. All regards of compassion and affection were 
lost, and no one would recede or give way for the relief of another. 
Faintness sometimes gave short pauses of quiet, but the first motion 
of any one renewed the struggle through all, under which ever and 
anon some one sunk to rise no more. At two o'clock a. m. not more 
than fifty remained alive ; but even this number was too many to 
partake of the saving air, the contest for which and life continued 
until the morning began to break, and with the hope of relief gave 
the survivors a view of the dead. The survivors then at the window, 
seeing that their entreaties could not prevail on. the guard to open 
the door, it occurred to Mr. Cook, the secretary to the council, that 
Mr. Holwell, if alive, might have more influence to obtain their re- 
lief ; and two of the company undertaking the search, discovered 
him, having still some signs of life. But when they brought him near 
the window, every one refused to quit his place excepting Capt. Mills, 
who, with rare generosity, offered to resign his, on which the rest 
likewise agreed to make room. He had scarely begun to recover his 
senses, before an officer, sent by the nabob, came and inquired if the 
English chief survived ; and soon after the same man returned with 
an order to open the prison. The dead were so thronged, and the 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 



71 



survivors had so little strength remaining, that they were employed 
for nearl}'^ half an hour in removing the bodies which lay against the 
door, before the}'^ could clear a passage to get out one by one ; when, 
of one hundred and forty-six who went in, no more than twenty-three 
came out alive, the ghastliest forms that ever were seen on the earth ! 
The nabob's troops beheld them, and the havoc of death from which 
they had escaped, with perfect indifference, but did not prevent them 
from removing to a distance, after having obliged them to clear the 
dungeon and dig a ditch on the outside of the fort, into which all 
the dead bodies were promiscuously thrqwn. 

This horrible tale, told by Mr. Holwell himself, does it not find a 
counterpart in the inhumanity which leads us to shut up our poor in 
hovels and our prisoners in cells, that are just such Calcutta holes ; 
and, what is worst of all, to exclude as much as possible every breath 
of God's pure air from our infant children? It may safely be said 
that every nursery in the land is a miniature Black Hole, as the tables 
of infant mortality attest but too clearly. We take away from those 
children light and air, the two essential elements of life, and yet we 
wonder that they die at such a frightful rate, — about five to one 
adult. We carefully curtain thickly every window of their rooms, — 
cells they should be called, — which is about as vile a piece of inhu- 
manity as was the action of the British government when it imposed 
a window-tax, thereby inducing the poor to exclude light and air 
from their rooms, and slowly killing themselves in order to escape a 
ridiculous taxation. To show that I do not exaggerate the mortality 
of children as compared with that of adults, I here append a table of 
the percentage of mortality of children under five years. It opens a 
dark picture. It gives the figures for some of our larger cities, and 
for the whole of the United States : — 



New York 60.45 

Philadelphia 45.54: 

St. Louis 53.00 

Chicago 51.24 

Gincinnati 46.68 

Baltimore 45.54 

With all these facts in view, it seems strange that so many people 
should still entertain a really positive hostility to pure air. But the 
explanation lies here : Every species of intoxication imparts a fond- 
ness for the condition, — a desire to recur to the sensations excited 



Washington . . 


. . . 46.44 


Milwaukee . . 


. . . 61.00 


Providence . , 


. . . 39.76 


Massachusetts . 


. . . 37.15 


Ehode Island 


. . . 34.16 


United States 


. . . 41.28 



72 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

hy it ; and the intoxication produced by foul air is not without this 
dangerous element, which, indeed, alone could have made it possible 
that men should shut out from their dwelling-places G-od's pure air, 
as if it were their worst enemy, and yield themselves and their chil- 
dren to those sensations of drowsiness and stupor which air impreg- 
nated with carbonic acid gas invariably excites. Legislation on this 
subject will therefore meet a deep-rooted opposition from the fre- 
quenters of tenement-houses, dens, cellars, etc. ; but in proportion as 
this opposition has its origin in that same foul air, the law should pro- 
tect the upgrowing generation from similar results, and make possible 
the raising of a new generation of children whose bodies shall be free 
from the fearful taint. The terrible epidemics from which the human 
race suffers periodically have also their chief carrier and nourisher in 
foul air. That foul air is the chief agent in spreading contagion and 
epidemics has been now demonstrated beyond a doubt ; and the fact 
which has so often excited wonder, that some epidemics seem to gather 
additional intensity in winter time, is a striking proof of it. The 
wonder was excited by a notion that the cold air of winter must be 
purer than the warmer air of summer, and produce of itself better 
ventilation in a house. But the reverse is the case. Unless a room 
has a good fire in an open chimney in winter time the ventilation is 
much less than in summer time, when windows and doors are thrown 
open, and hence in winter the air is more impure in unheated rooms. 
Now, the miserable dwellings of the poor are but too often without 
fire ; at night-time, particularly, few of them can afford to keep up a 
fire. Thus the dread agent of contagion and pestilence gains addi- 
tional strength from misery and poverty ; and it is for this reason 
that fuel should be provided for the poor in winter time, if for no 
other, as one of the most effective means to ventilate their wretched 
dwellings, as they now exist under our present defective system of 
house-building, especially in cities containing crowded populations. 

This necessity of providing warmth in buildings as an indispensable 
element for obtaining purity of air is a matter so very little under- 
stood that it may be well to explain it somewhat further, especially as 
one of the main objections to ventilation and the admission of pure 
air into buildings has been the notion that this necessarily implies 
unhealthy draughts and uncomfortable cold. Drs. Drysdale and 
Hayward, in their admirable work on Health and Comfort in House- 
Building (London, 48 Charing Cross, 1872), say: — 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 73 

"To procure a sufficient supply of fresh air in our houses may, at 
first sight, appear a very simple and easy matter ; we have apparently 
only to make as large an opening as is necessary for the admission of 
the outer air, and it will come in. This is, however, a misconception ; 
for the outer air will not come in unless at the same time the inner 
air goes out, and these two currents will not readily take place 
through one aperture ; there mi^st therefore be two openings, — an 
inlet and an outlet. 

" We need not insist on the above fact, because it is recognized by 
most persons of experience in the art of ventilation, and they gen- 
erally provide two apertures. But here they stop, as though the 
making of a sufficiently capacious inlet and outlet were all that is 
necessary. 

"But this is not enough; and it does not, will not, and cannot 
answer for house-ventilation in this country, because there is at 
least one circumstance that forms a fatal objection to all these 
schemes, and that is that nearly always the outer air is cold air, and 
cold air cannot with safety be admitted into our rooms at all times ; 
nor indeed will it be, for in cold weather the inmates will stop up the 
holes in order to keep it out." 

The British government commissionei's who had the investigation 
of this matter of ventilation, especially in the houses of the poor, 
under their charge, sum up, as the result of their explorations, in these 
words : — 

"The science or art of ventilation of buildings has never been 
reduced to system. Openings are made from the open air outside 
a building, below for the admission of fresh air, and above for the 
escape of the foul, in various fanciful ways ; but the cold draughts 
are so inconvenient that evei'y endeavor is practised to obstruct the 
inlet." 1 

And a recent writer, speaking on this subject, says: "The art of 
warming or ventilating a building is not a difficult one ; but the art 
of warming and ventilating is extremely difficult, and cannot be said 
to have attained to anything like perfection." ^ 

The air, therefoi'e, must be warmed before it is admitted. But 



' Government Blue-Bopk on Warming and Ventilation of Dwellings, p. 126. 
^ Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, published 1S68. Art: "Warming and Venti- 
lation." 



74 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the entrance of cold air through these inlets is not the only evil 
connected with this crude method of ventilation, for it will also fre- 
quently come in through the openings intended for outlets. 

"At no examination of these," say the British commissioners 
again, "was it found that the air was escaping through them. On 
the contrary, flame was bent inwards, and fumes of partially con- 
sumed substances were driven into the room." ^ 

In reference to the objections made against any kind of ventilation 
unless the admitted fresh air has previously been warmed, Drs. 
Drysdale and Hay ward say : — 

"When the air admitted into the rooms is perceptibly cold, every 
effort is made to arrest its entrance by stopping up all modes of 
ingress, even those of the best-contrived ventilating systems ; these 
are thus rendered nugatory, and the whole art of ventilation is 
decried as a nuisance, the assurances of Messrs. Potts, Edwards, 
Watson, etc., to the contrary notwithstanding. On the other hand, 
if anything like success be attained in keeping out the draughts by 
close-fitting doors and windows, thick carpets and mats, or by listing, 
sand-bags, etc., the room becomes close and oppressive; and if 
several persons be in it, as at a dinner or supper party, the want of 
fresh air cannot be borne, and it soon compels the opening of the 
door or window, thus subjecting some one to a cold draught, and the 
risk of rheumatism, sore throat, bronchitis, or neuralgia. If only 
a few persons occupy a room protected from draughts as above 
described, it may be borne for a time ; but then the chimney begins 
to smoke, if not continuously, at least occasionally, from slight dis- 
turbances of the atmosphere, such as gusts of wind, slamming of 
doors, or even the sweep of a lady's dress in the room." 

It is, therefore, absolutely necessary that in countries of variable 
climates, like ours, houses should be artificially warmed, if the air in 
them is to be kept pure by ventilation. 

The objection that the air thus artificially warmed is dry and dis- 
agreeable may be obviated by supplying water, either by evaporation 
or spray, to the air aftei* it has been warmed. Air, to be pleasant 
for respiration, must contain a proper proportion of moisture ; that is, 
near to the point of saturation, or what is usually contained in air out 



' Government Blue-Book on "Warmmg and Ventilation of Dwellings, p. 126. 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 75 

of doors. The quantity of water required for saturation of the air dif- 
fers with the temperature. Air at 66 degrees requires 6 grains of 
water in each cubic foot, but air at 30 degrees holds only 2 grains ; 
consequently, if air be reduced from 66 degrees to 30 degrees, it 
parts with 4 grains of its moisture per cubic foot, in the form of 
dew ; if then it be afterwards raised again to 65 degrees, without 
more water being supplied, it must necessarily feel dry and harsh. 
Hence, if in winter, by the warming apparatus, we raise the tempera- 
ture of the air from 32 degrees to 65 degrees, we must supply it with 
water ; otherwise it must necessarily be disagreeable and unhealthy, 
because of its rapid abstraction of moisture from the lungs and 
skin. 

Having thus shown the necessity, in general, of providing pure air 
for all citizens of a Commonwealth, I shall now proceed to examine 
the conditions — which are by no means so few as may appear on a 
superficial examination — under which alone this can be done. 

To provide pure air for every person, and thus protect each from 
the contaminating influences of all kinds of miasmatic and other im- 
purities, the legislative power in each State must regulate — 

1. The lajdng out of cities and villages in such a mariner as to 
make possible the needful ventilation of their buildings, and the pro- 
viding of public drainage. 

2. The construction of all private as well as public buildings in 
such a manner as to make accessible to every inmate the necessary 
quantity of pure air, and the establishing of private drainage. 

3. Personal cleanliness. 

4. The laying out of counties and townships. 

But, before entering into details, let me cite a few touching pas- 
sages from Dickens's famous Dombey and Son: — 

'■ ' Breathe the polluted air, foul with every impurity that is poison- 
ous to health and life ; and have every sense, conferred upon our 
race for its delight and happiness, offended, sickened, and disgusted, 
and made a channel by which misery and death alone can enter. 
Vai?Gly attempt to think of any simple plant, or flower, or wholesome 
weed, that, set in this foetid bed, could have its natural growth, or 
put its little leaves forth to the sun, as God designed it. And then, 
caUing up some ghastly child, with stunted form and wicked face, 
hold forth on its unnatural sinfulness, and lament its being, so early, 



76 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

far away from heaven, — but think a little of its having been con- 
ceived, and born, and bred in hell! 

" Those who study the phj^sical sciences, and bring them to bear 
upon the health of man, tell us, that if the noxious particles that rise 
Irom vitiated air were palpable to the sight, that we should see them 
lowering in a dense, black cloud above such haunts, and rolling slowly 
on to corrupt the better portion of a town. But if the moral pesti- 
lence that rises with them, and in the eternal laws of outraged nature 
is inseparable from them, could be made discoverable too, how 
terrible the revelation ! Then should we see depravity, impiet}'^, 
drunkenness, theft, murder, and a long train of nameless sins against 
the natural affections and repulsions of mankind, overhanging the 
devoted spots, and creeping on to blight the innocent and spread 
contagion among the pure. Then should we see how the same 
poisoned fountains that flow into our hospitals and lazar-houses, 
inundate the jails, and make the convict-ships swim deep and roll 
across the seas, and overrun vast continents with crime. Then should 
we stand appalled, to know that where we generate disease to strike 
our children down and entail itself in unborn generations, there also 
we breed, by the same certain process, infancy that knows no inno- 
cence, youth without modesty or shame, maturity that is mature in 
nothing but in suffering and in guilt, blasted old age that is a scan- 
dal on the form we bear. Unnatural humanity ! When we shall 
gather grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles ; when fields of 
grain shall spring up from offal in the by-ways of our wicked cities, 
and roses bloom in the fat church-yards that they cherish, then we 
may look for natural humanity and find it growing from such seed." 



CHAPTER IV. 

LAYING OUT OF CITIES. 

The laying out of cities according to principles of sanitary science 
is practicable only, of course, in new cities, or in new additions to 
cities already existing, though it may in many cases be possible also 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 77 

to rebuild old and badly built cities on a sanitary plan, at least in 
part ; as Paris, for instance, was remodelled. Large fires and other 
circumstances may also make such reforms practicable in many cities. 

In this matter it is first of all necessary, that the State should deter- 
mine and establish for all cities and villages the minimum width of 
boulevards, sJLreets, and alleys, and the proportionate number of open 
public squares. In my judgment, every fourth street should be a. 
boulevard, and every fourth square in ever}'- direction would con- 
stitute the pi'oper proportion of public squares. At least a part of 
these squares, and the centre and side hues of the boulevards also, 
should be planted with trees, to absorb the carbonic acid gas with 
which the air of a crowded city is always surcharged, and to furnish 
shade for the inhabitants. 

Indeed, the value of trees for purifying the air, in large cities, 
especiall}^ can scarcely be overestimated. Their influence as such 
purifying agents is, indeed, almost incredible. Take into calcula- 
tion, for instance, that a fair-sized elm, plane, or lime-tree will 
produce seven hundred thousand leaves, with an area of two hundred 
thousand square feet. Now, all these leaves greedily absorb the 
carbonic acid of the atmosphere, — which to animal life is simply 
poison, — and having absorbed it, breathe it forth again as oxj^gen. 
At the same time they thereby modify the temperature, promoting- 
coolness in the summer and furnishing warmth in winter ; while the 
trunks of the trees materially assist sewerage in purifying the soil. 

I may add, that the same principle of purifying the air holds good 
in regard to house-plants. I quote from a celebrated authority. Dr. 
J. M. Anders, of Philadelphia: — 

"The average rate of transpiration for plants having thin, soft 
leaves, like geranium, lantanas, etc., is found to be an ounce and a 
half of watery vapor per square foot of leaf-surface for twelve diurnal 
hours of clear weather. At this rate, a great tree like the Washino-- 
ton Elm at Cambridge, which has been estimated to have twO' 
hundred thousand square feet of leaf-surface, would exhale seven 
and three-fourths tons of water in twelve hours. The rate of trans- 
piration for a house-plant is at least fifty per cent more rapid than 
for one in the open air ; and it is evident, on the face of it, that a 
number of such plants must have a material influence upon the 
humidity of the air in whicli they are kept. 



78 LIBEKTY AND LAW. 

" By means of the hydrometer, the atmosphere of two rooms at 
the Episcopal Hospital, in which the conditions and dimensions 
were in every respect similar, were tested simultaneously, in order 
to note the variations produced by growing plants. In the window 
of one of the rooms were situated five thrifty plants ; the other 
contained none. For eighteen consecutive days the dew-point of the 
room containing the plants gave an average complement one and a 
half degrees lower than the room in which there were no plants. 

"To make it sure that the difference in humidity was due solely 
to the presence of the plants, the conditions were varied and further 
observations made, but the results were similar. 

"Since it is well known that certain maladies — especially those 
affecting the lungs and air-passages — are benefited by a moderately 
moist and warm atmosphere, and since plants furnish moisture to the 
warm air of a dwelling, these may properly be classed as therapeutic 
agents. 

******** 

"The plants should be well selected, and kept in a thriving condi- 
tion. The chief point to be borne in mind in the selection of the 
plants are, first: that they have soft, thin leaves; secondly: foliage 
plants, or those having extensive leaf-surface, are to be preferred ; 
thirdly: those which are highly scented (as the tuberose, etc.) should 
be avoided, because they often give rise to headache and other 
unpleasant symptoms. 

"In order to facilitate a practical application of the data gained 
by experiment, the following formula has been carefully prepared : 
Given a room twenty feet long, twelve feet wide, and ceiling twelve 
feet high, warmed by dry air ; a dozen thrifty plants, with soft, thin 
leaves, and a leaf-surface of six square feet each, would, if well 
watered, and so situated as to receive the direct rays of the sun 
(preferably the morning sun) for at least several hours, raise the 
proportion of aqueous vapor to about the health standard. 

"To obtain the best results, both the rooms occupied during the 
day and the sleeping-apartments should contain plants. It was for a 
long time the opinion of scientific interpreters generallj^, that plants 
in sleeping-apartments were unwholesome, because of their giving 
off carbonic acid gas at night ; but it has been shown by experiment, 
that it would require twenty thrift}^ plants to produce an amount of 
the gas equivalent to that inhaled by one baby sleeper ; so that is no 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 79 

valid objection to their admission, and not to be compared with the 
benefit arising from their presence," 

But there is another way in which trees and plants act directly 
upon the human body, and purify the air which has been contami- 
nated by its exhalations ; for our own bodies inhale and exhale elec- 
tricity, like the earth or the air. It has been calculated that the 
watery vapor which in the course of twenty-four- hours exhales from 
the surface of a healthy body amounts to from thirty to forty oujices 
of water. This is sufficient to disturb the electric equilibrium of the 
bodj', and to evolve electricity of much higher tension than that set 
free by chemical action. This evaporation maj^ probably account for 
the traces of free electricity generally to be detected in the body, 
by merely insulating a person and placing him in contact with a con- 
densing electrometer. Pfaff and Ahrens generally found the elec- 
tricity of the body thus examined to be positive, especially when the 
circulation had been excited by partaking of alcoholic stimulants. 
Hummer, another observer, found that in 2,422 experiments on him- 
self, his body was positively electric in 1,252, negative in 771, and 
neutral in 399. The causes of the variations in the character of the 
electric conditions of the body admit of ready explanations in the 
varying composition of, the perspired fluid. For if it contains, as it 
generally does, some free acid, it, by its evaporation, would leave 
the body positively electric ; while if it merely contains neutral salt, 
it would induce an opposite condition. The accuracy of these state- 
ments can be easily verified by means of the electrometer. 

But perhaps the most astounding feature of modern scientific dis- 
coveries is the reciprocal influence of electricity on plants. I have 
already explained the vast benefits which result from the exhalation 
of ozone, or electric oxygen, by fiowers. And now Dr. C. W. Sie- 
mens, in a report to the Royal Society of Physical Science, in Lon- 
don, makes the announcement : that plants shut ^3 in a closed room, 
if hghted by electric light, flourish quite as well as those exposed to 
sunlight. 

To substantiate his statement, he exhibited tulip buds, and placing 
them under the influence of electric light forty minutes, brought 
them forth before the eyes of his spectators full-grown flowers. 
Mustard, bean, cucumber, melon, and other quick-growing seeds 
developed in the same proportion. 

It thus appears clearly, that electric light, if properly applied, can 



80 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

be made to do the same duty for plants as sunlight, and that plants 
can thus be made to grow and develop in night as well as in day- 
time, — another instance of the wonderful subjugation of nature unto 
man. 

The rationale of this purification of the air by trees, flowers, and 
blossoms of trees is thus explained by Robert Hunt, in his "Re- 
searches on Light " : — 

"It is only the green parts of plants which absorb carbonic acid: 
the flowers absorb oxygen gas. Plants grow in soils composed of 
diverse materials, and they derive from these, by the soluble powers 
of water, which is taken up by the roots and by mechanical force 
carried over every part, carbonic acid, carbonate, and organic matters- 
containing carbon. Evaporation is continually going on, and this 
water escapes freely from the leaves during the night, when the 
functions of the vegetable, like those of the animal world, are at 
rest, and carries with it carbonic acid. Water and carbonic acid 
are sucked up by capillary attraction, and both evaporate from the 
exterior part of the leaves. 

" There is no reversion of the processes which are necessary to 
support the life of a plant. The same functions are operating in the 
same way by day and by night, but differing greatly in degree. 
During the hours of sunshine the whole of the carbonic acid ab- 
sorbed by the leaves or taken up with water by the roots is decom- 
posed, all the functions of the plant are excited, the processes of in- 
halation and exhalation are quickened, and the plant pours out to the 
atmosphere streams of pure oxygen at the same time that it removes 
a large quantity of deleterious carbonic acid from it. In the shade, 
the exciting power being lessened, these operations are slower, and 
in the dark they are very nearly, but certainly not quite suspended." 

The changes which take place in the seed during the process of 
germination have been investigated by Saussure, and the result is 
this : oxygen gas is consumed and carbonic acid is evolved ; and the 
volume of the latter is exactly equal to the volume of the former. 
The grain weighs less after germination than it did before, the loss 
of weight varying from one-third to one-fifth. This loss, of course,- 
depends on the combination of its carbon with the oxygen absorbed, 
which is evolved as carbonic acid. 

For the discovery that oxygen gas is exhaled from the leaves of 
plants during the daytime, we are indebted to Dr. Priestley ; and 



PUBLIC HYGIEKE. 81 

Sennebier first pointed out that carbonic acid is required for the dis- 
engagement of the oxygen in this process. M. Theodore de Saus- 
sure and De Candolle fully established this fact. 

The experiments of Sennebier further show, that the most refran- 
gible of the solar rays, viz., the violet, is the most active in deter- 
mining the decomposition of carbonic acid by plants. Whether, 
however, this fact is altogether to be trusted, and, above all, whether 
it holds good in regard to plants of all colors, is not yet known. ' It 
is more than likely that the same coloi-ed solar rays — say violet, for 
instance — maj^ operate differently upon differently colored plants. 

"With public squares suflflcient ip number, and wide boulevards and 
streets lined with trees, — the squares filled, besides, with flowers and 
shrubs, — there can be no difficulty in providing the most central part 
of a city with sufficient pure air to meet the necessities of every prop- 
erly constructed building. 

The erection of fountains and public baths in various parts of the 
city would, of course, still further increase its healthf ulaess. 

PURIFICATION OF THE SOIL. 

It is further necessary, that the State or the municipal corporation 
should provide for all cities and villages a perfect system of drain- 
age. The ground below, as well as the air around and above us, 
requires continuous and thorough purification. Next to the air, the 
soil is the main caiTier of epidemical and other diseases ; and being 
less susceptible than the atmosphere of continuous purification, it 
has been considered necessary by the most experienced sanitary 
officials to prohibit the habitation of all underground rooms, whether 
cellars or basements, and to insist upon an air-tight cementing of all 
the walls and floors of cellars and basements. 

A perfect system of drainage for a city or village must determine 
the number, sites, and outlets of main sewers and the branch sewer- 
pipes to each house. All the sewers and sewer-pipes should be laid 
as deep as practicable under the ground, and should be built as air- 
tight as possible ; since it has been abundantly demonstrated that the 
common sewers and cast-iron sewer-pipes, without close-fitting valves,. 
allow the penetration of the vicious gases generated in them, which 
thus spread from below into the houses. All sewer-openings on the 
streets or alleys should have air-tight valves, to admit the surface- 
water without allowing the escape of noxious vapors. 

6 



52 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

Arrangements should be made for the removal of the sewage and 
its chemical disinfection, so that it may be speedily returned to the 
soil to which it belongs, as its most potent fertilizer, and which in its 
turn is for it the most complete and final disinfectant. 

Both these requirements of a good sewer-system are secured by 
the one now adopted and carried out in many parts of Great Britain, 
and should at once be made to replace our system, whereby the great 
rivers are generally made the receptacles of the filth of the sewers, 
the wretched effects whereof in London led to the adoption of the 
present system. So offensive had the smell from the Thames, and 
from the clogged-up sewers opening into the Thames become, that a 
.general clamor arose for the abolition of all sewers ; and Faraday, in 
a letter to the London Times, in 1854, was constrained to say : " The 
smell was very bad, and common to the whole of the water ; it was the 
same as that which now comes up from the gully-holes in the streets. 
The whole river was for a time a real sewer." It was then that 
the present system was proposed, by means of which the sewage of 
all parts of London is carried far away from the city to places where 
it can be utilized, by drainage so deep as practically to prevent the 
escape of its gases through the soil. 

" This vast construction comprises three gigantic main tunnels or 
sewers on each side of the river. These completely divide undex-- 
ground London from west to east, and, cutting all existing sewers at 
right angles, intercept their flow to the Thames, and are assumed to 
carry every gallon of London sewage, under certain conditions, into 
the river, at a certain point far below the city limits and not far dis- 
tant from the sea. One of those drains is about eight miles in 
length, being at its rise some four feet six inches in diameter, and 
thence increasing in circumference as the waters of the sewers it 
intercepts require a wider course, until at its termination its diameter 
is twelve feet six inches. The minimum fall of this drain is twelve 
feet in the mile ; its maximum, at the beginning, nearly fifty feet a 
mile. It is laid at a depth of from twenty to twenty-six feet below 
the ground, and it drains an area of fourteen square miles. The 
other drains, of similar vastness, are laid at a depth of from thirty to 
forty feet. One of the reservoirs is a mile and a half long, one hun- 
dred feet wide, and twenty-one feet deep ; it is made of this great 
length, in proportion to width, to allow of its being roofed with brick 
arches, which are again covered with earth to a considerable thick- 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 83 

ness, so that not the slightest smell or escape of miasma can take 
place. While the sewage is in the reservoirs it is deodorized by an 
admixture of lime. When the tide is at its height, the sluices, which 
pass from the bottom of the reservoir far out into the bed of the 
river, are opened, and the whole allowed to flow away. It takes two 
hours thus to empty the reservoir, by which time the tide sweeps 
down strongly, thus placing the contents of the sewers, every twelve 
hours, twenty-six miles or more distant from the metropolis." 

But I do not propose that the sewage of our cities be thus lost to 
use, as that of London is lost. It should be carried back to the soil, 
and reinvigorate it for further purposes. Our own lands need every 
day more and more this invigorating sewage, and the cities along our 
great rivers need to be freed from the miasmatic influences they carry 
along, as it is borne on by their waters, no matter how great the dis- 
infecting properties of running water. 

Thus Prof. Liebig writes : "Of all the elements of the fields 
which, in their products, in the shape of corn and meal, are carried 
into the cities and there consumed, nothing, or as good as nothing, 
returns to the fields. It is clear that if these elements were collected 
without loss, and every year restored to the fields, they would then 
retain the power to furnish to the cities the same quantity of corn 
and meal, and it is equally clear that if the fields do not receive 
back these elements, agriculture must soon suffer. In regard to 
the utility of the avails of the sewage of towns as manures, no 
farmer, and scarcely any intelligent person, entertains a doubt." 

Our modern facilities for transportation, and for removing all 
kinds of compost b}^ mechanical appliances, should induce all mu- 
nicipal corporations to apply these powers to the desired object, so 
that the diurnal purification of each city and village should be as 
regular in its progress as the succession of day and night, and the 
vast amounts of filth of all kinds that now poison the watercourses, 
the fish, and the people living near river-banks, may be returned to 
the soil at many more or less distant points in the surrounding 
country. 

In regard to the momentous question, how to utilize sewage in 
the best manner, — health, economy, and utility considered, — it 
would be difficult to decide which of the various methods proposed 
possesses the greatest advantage. 

One of these methods is known as the phosphate process, and 



84 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

appears, in some instances at least, to have been successfully 
employed. The phosphate in question is prepared by the action of 
diluted hydrochloric or sulphuric acid on a pulverized phosphate of 
alumina found in the West Indies. The soluble phosphate thus. 
formed is a powerful antiseptic and disinfectant, and on being 
properly diluted and added to the sewage- water in reservoirs, 
where it can be perfectly tranquil, slowly precipitates all the solid 
organic matter held in suspension. At the same time it completely 
deodorizes the water, purifying it to such an extent that, it is said,, 
fishes can live in it, and it will stand through the hot summer 
weather without putrefying or emitting a disagreeable odor. 

Not a great while ago, a report was made by a committee of the 
British Association of Science relative to the treatment and utiliza- 
tion of sewage, in which the ground is taken that it is only by 
filtering this material through the earth itself that the dissolved and 
suspended substances, which are the food of vegetable and the poison 
of animal life, can be kept out of rivers and applied to the production 
of growths. After this straining, the liquid matter that escapes may, 
according to this report, be allowed to enter into the rivers without 
producing any of the deleterious effects that accompany the intro- 
duction of the original sewage-matter. It is asserted that light,. 
porous, gravelly soils, and even blown sand, thus treated with 
sewage, furnish ci-ops of great richness, and meadows watered with 
the substance yield an astonishing growth of grass, exceeding that 
of soils to which any other kind of fertilizer has been applied. 

Quite recently, another method for the disinfection and utilization 
of sewage as manure has attracted considerable attention. This 
process consists in appl3dng to the sewage clay treated with oil of 
vitriol and mixed with a little water, in the proportion of six and a 
half hundred-weight of the vitriolized clay to every one hundred 
thousand gallons of the sewage. To that mixture one and a half 
hundred-weight of slaked lime is added. After a few hours, a pre- 
cipitation forms at the bottom of the receptacle containing the 
sewage, leaving a clear liquid at the top. The precipitation is the 
manure, and both it and the liquid are entirely devoid of odor, and 
inoffensive ; the fluid may be used for irrigating land, or allowed to 
escape into the sea. To obtain this sewage regularly, the streets of 
every city should be swept every night, and the dirt, together with 
the sewage, taken to the soil of the agriculturist for its rejuvenation. 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 85 

By thus keeping the streets clean, it will also be practicable to 
sprinkle them through the day, during the dusty season, and thereby 
to moisten the heated air to its normal condition, and refresh the ex- 
hausted bodies of the inhabitants. Every city should inaugurate 
«ueh a system of sprinkling the streets. 

The fire departments of every city, having a plentiful supply of 
water, can very easily extend their functions so as to effect this 
■cleaning and sprinkling of streets. All the cities along rivers, for 
instance, can without much cost have their streets every day regu- 
larly washed from the water-plugs arranged for the fire-engines. As 
matters stand at present, people wait for a heavy rain to accomplish 
this. But heavy rains do not come at our bidding, and light ones 
■only make the condition of our streets worse. It behooves man to 
help himself, and not wait upon the irrational forces of nature, that 
may send down a heavy rain when it is a positive injur}^ and with- 
hold the moisture when all the earth cries for it. We must learn to 
control this, and provide by art against the irregularity of the action 
of natural forces. 

The soil being, next to the air, the most active agent in spread- 
ing disease and epidemic matter, it is evident that the soil-water of 
cities and villages, their springs and wells, must be generally of an 
unhealthy 'character, and unfit to be used for drinking purposes. 
Hence public water-works are very essential for the preservation of 
health, and their construction and use should be insisted on wherever 
this is at all practicable. But, besides their great sanitary value as 
furnishing the best drinking water, they are indispensable for the 
purposes of drainage, for watering the streets and parks, and all 
the vegetation of a city, and for the establishment of public baths. 

Gas-works, with their constant efflux of sulphureted hydrogen, 
should never be tolerated within the city limits ; and in the laying of 
gas-pipes it should be seen to, that they are put at as great a depth as 
practicable under the ground, and made tight and secure against the 
•escape of gas. Indeed, all factories that emit foul odors, and poison 
the air, should be removed far from the city and disinfected daily. 

Nor should slaughter-houses be tolerated witliin the city, and the 
strictest control should be exercised over them to secure the removal 
of all noxious matter and the disinfection of their offal. The public 
health of every cit}'' demands that a rational system of abattoirs 
should supersede the present miserably unsystematic arrangement of 



Ob LIBERTY AND LAW. 

slaughter-houses, with then* inevitably accompanying nuisances of 
soap, fat, etc. ; establishments concerning which the New York Board 
of Health says: " It is positively asserted that more noxious gases- 
escape into the air from this source than would result from the decom- 
position of human bodies if the whole island were a grave-yard." It 
makes one blush to reflect that these life- destroying establishments 
are still tolerated in the midst of large cities, when so far back as 
the reign of Henry VII. a petition was addressed to the king, from. 
several parishes of the city of London, afBrming that the said 
" parishes were greatly annoyed and distempered by corrupt air 
engendered in the said parishes by reason of the slaughter of beasts- 
had and done in the butchery of St. Nicholas ; " which petition called 
forth an enactment that " no butcher or his servant is to slay any 
beast within the walls of London, or any walled town in England,, 
under a penalty." 



CHAPTEE V. 

CONSTEUCTION OF BUILDINGS WITHIN THE CITIES. 

Apart from what is above required for the city at large, a general 
building-law should be passed for the erection of all new buildings 
in the city ; and another law requiring that all buildings already 
erected should be made conformable to the laws of sanitary science^ 
so far as practicable. 

For executing such a building-law, two classes of commissioners 
should be joined in a board to be appointed, — architects and sanitary 
officers. The architectural commissioners will have to see that the 
necessary architectural requirements for buildings are complied with,, 
as to thickness of walls, strength of foundations, fire-escapes, fire- 
proof externally, etc. ; the sanitary commissioner, in conjunction with 
the architect, should supervise the sanitary requirements, such as the 
height of the building itself, of its several stories, of its windows^ 
and their position in regard to hght and fresh air ; the water-closets,, 
and their proper connection with the general sewer ; the construction 
of the kitchen, with reference to cleanliness, absorption or removal of 
all fumes, stenches, etc., and immediate removal of all offal and dirt; 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 87 

the proper supply of bath-rooms ; and such a system of ventilation 
and disinfection as the exigencies of the building may require, and 
as I have already pointed out to some extent in the chapter on Pure 
Air. 

To cut off as much as possible communication between the house 
and the soil, the floors and walls of every cellar and basement should 
be made as air-tight as possible, and the habitation of cellars and 
basements should be absolutely forbjdden. 

This fact of sanitary science, namely, that the soil under the house 
is as capable of conducting impure air, pregnant with disease, into 
the house, as the air outside of the house, is also one of those cir- 
cumstances that are very little known and still less heeded, even by 
experienced architects. Dr. Pettenkoffer remarks in relation thereto : 

" Remarkable testimony as to the permeability of the ground, and 
of the foundations of our houses, has been given bj'^ gas emanations 
into houses which had no gas laid on. I know cases where persons 
were poisoned and killed by gas which had to travel for twenty feet 
. under the street, and then through the foundations, cellar-vaults, and 
flooring of the ground-floor rooms. As these kinds of accidents 
happened only in winter, they have been brought forward as a proof 
that the frozen soil did not allow the gas to escape straight upwards, 
but drove it into the house. I have told you already why I take the 
frozen soil to be not more air-tight than when not frozen. In such 
cases the penetration of gas into the houses is facilitated by the cur- 
rent in the ground- air caused by the house. The house, being 
.warmer inside than the external air, acts like a heated chimney on its 
surroundings, and chiefly on the ground upon which it stands, and 
the air therein, which we will call the ground-air. The warm air in 
the chimney is pressed into and up the chimney by the cold air sur- 
rounding the same. The chimne}' cannot act without heat, and the 
heat is only the means of disturbing the equilibrium of the columns 
of air inside and outside the chimney. The warm air inside is lighter 
than the cold air outside, and this being so, the former must float 
upward through the chimney, just like oil in water. It continues to 
do so as long as fresh cold air comes into its neighborhood from out- 
side. As soon as we interrupt this arrival, the draught into the 
chimney is at an end. Any other way of looking at the action of 
chimne3's leads to erroneous views, which have many times stopped 
the progress of the art of heating and ventilating. 



88 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

" Thus our heated houses ventilate themselves, not only through the 
-walls, but also through the ground on which the house stands. If 
there is any gas or other smelling substance in the surrounding 
ground-air, they will enter the current of this ventilation. 

" The movement of gas through the ground into the house may give 
us warning that the ground-air is in continual intercourse with our 
bouses, and may become the introducer of many kinds of lodgers. 
These lodgers may either be found out, or cause injury at once, like 
gas ; or they may, without betraying their presence in any way, 
become enemies, or associate themselves with other injurious ele- 
ments, and increase their activity. The evil resulting therefrom 
continues till the store of these creatures of the ground-air are con- 
sumed. Our senses may remain unaware of noxious things which 
we take in, in one shape or another, through, air, water, or food. 

" We took rather a short-sighted view all the while, when we be- 
lieved that the nuisances of our neighbors could only poison the water 
in our pumps ; they can also poison the ground-air for us, and I see 
more danger in this, as air is more universally present and more 
movable than water. I should feel quite satisfied if, by my lectures, 
3'ou were convinced of this important fact, if of none other. * * * 

" Hereby the question about the origin of the gas is certainly not 
jT^et answered, and would have been left equally unsettled if we had 
to ask : Whence comes all the carbonic acid which is found in the 
ground-water? All this water is precipitated from the atmosphere, — 
from rain or snow. In entering the soil as meteoric water, its amount 
■of carbonic acid is exceedingly small. By help of Bunsen's analyti- 
cal tables it is easy to calculate, from the quantity of carbonic acid 
in the atmosphere and the absorbing power of .water for this gas, 
that one pint of rain-water at the average temperature and baromet- 
rical pressui"e can contain only a very small fraction of a grain of 
carbonic acid ; and this has been proved further by analytical experi- 
ments. But this analysis of the piimp-water in Munich, which was 
poorest in carbonic acid, showed that it contained on an average 1^ 
to 1.9 grains of free gas. The ground-water at the places of exami- 
nation stands about sixteen feet from the surface. It is therefore 
evident, that the meteoric water, which is the sole source of the 
ground-water, must more than centuple its original amount of car- 
bonic acid before it reaches the wells. This much is certain: that 
the source of the carbonic acid must be sought for in the soil, and 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 89 

for this reason the more natural supposition is, that the soil yields 
the gas and gives it to the water and to the air simultaneously, but 
uaturall}^ with greater facility and in greater quantity to the air than 
to the water. The sources of the carbonic acid in the soil have now 
to undergo a stricter investigation ; the probability is, they owe their 
origin to organic processes in the soil." 

But, furthermore, the habitation of any new dwelling within three 
months after its erection, though it be purified by fire in each room 
and in the cellar, should be forbidden, as the enormous quantity of 
moisture which new walls, etc., contain cannot evaporate before that 
time, and during its presence renders such dwellings dangerously 
unhealthy. 

It having been clearly demonstrated, that the natural ventilation of 
buildings by windows, chimney's, and other vents is altogether insuffi- 
cient to meet the requirements of the human body, an artificial system 
must be prescribed, whereby the necessarj^ quantity of pure air can be 
brought into every room of each house and the impure air constantly 
expelled. The revolving hot and cold air furnace accomplishes this 
object, and ought, therefore, to be required for all large cities by the 
o;eneral building-law. 

All buildings should be inspected semi-annually by the. official 
architectural and sanitaiy commissioners, both in regard to their 
safety and their healthfulness, and the result published and reported ; 
the report to specify all particulars, and to state the number of in- 
mates, so that the overcrowding of houses and rooms, which makes 
proper ventilation impossible, and spreads diseases and crimes in so 
many portions of our large cities, may be effectively prevented. 

In the erection of high buildings in cities, with many large win- 
dows of plate and other glass, ext(ii'nal shades above the window- 
tops should be provided, to prevent as far as practicable the radia- 
tion and reflection of the solar rays, and avoid the increase of heat 
that will add several degrees to the natural warmth of summer. It 
has been conjectured, though perhaps without sufficient grounds, that 
tin extensive refraction of the solar rays from plate-glass in midsum- 
mer might affect the regularity of the ebb and flow of the electro- 
magnetic tides, and increase the formation of carbonic acid gas in the 
air of a badly ventilated city; but whether these injurious effects 
arise from this cause or not, the fact that it increases the natural 



90 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

heat of the cUmate in summer, is injurious to the eyes, and induces, 
sunstrokes, should arrest the attention of the legislator. 

The almost total absence of smoke-consumers in the factories,, 
distilleries, breweries, and furnaces used in cities is another source 
of injury and annoyance to the inhabitants, causing the escape of 
large volumes of foul gases, and enveloping the place with soot and 
foul odors. The manufacturers using coal should be required to 
provide the common inventions for burning the carbonaceous pai-- 
ticles that now escape from their furnace fires, and as much of the 
smoke as may be practicable, whereby they will economize fuel and 
promote the health and cleanliness of the citizens. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PERSONAL CLEANLINESS. 

The air cannot be kept pure and safe if impure bodies fill it con- 
stantly with foul exhalations. Impurity is as well the cause as the 
effect of disease and contagion. Hence personal uncleanliness is not 
merely an offence to the senses, but a bodily injury ; and purity of 
body becomes an indispensable requisite in large cities, where the 
bodies of men constantly jostle against each other, and the exhala- 
tions therefrom are so extensive. 

Nothing will tend so much to promote personal cleanliness as the 
provision of pure air. Purity of one kind will excite a desire for 
purity in all forms. Properly -laid out cities and well-constructed 
houses may therefore be supposed, of themselves, to secure the neces- 
sary personal cleanlinesss. But the establishment of baths in every 
house, and on every floor of a house where they are built for the hab- 
itation of more than one family, as well as the baths to be constructed 
for public use in every fourth square of a city, will tend still further 
to secure this necessary requisite of phj^sical and moral health, and 
make special legislation on the subject superfluous. I may mention, 
incidentally, that bathing in water also induces a desire to drink water, 
and is thus a valuable agent in extirpating thirst for alcoholic drinks. 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 91 

On the other hand, pure air can be enjoj-ed only by those persons who 
preserve their own personal cleanliness, and secure the most thorough 
ventilation of their workshops, offices, and dwellings. Heat, light, 
and electricity can be enjoyed perfectly only by those who inhale pure 
air, which gives man heat and strength from the oxygen consumed 
through his lungs, renewing his animal heat and power every instant 
of his life. For air is truly the chief nourisher in life's feast, the 
elemental supply that enables man to move and execute the functions 
and faculties of mind and body. Hence the imperious duty of the 
State to provide for the preservation of the purity of the air at any 
cost, as the element of prime necessity, absolutely indispensable to 
the happiness, health, and life of its citizens every moment of their 
existence. 



CHAP TEE VII. 

LAYING OUT OF COUNTIES AND TOWNSHIPS. 

Even the agricultural districts, where men live so far apart that 
the injurious influence of one body upon the other through the air is 
difficult of ascertainment, demand, under the guidance of modern 
sanitary science, some general laws whereby to secure each citizen of 
those districts immunity from harm, and the inhabitants of cities 
protection against the miasmatic poisons in the currents of air swept 
along from such districts by the winds. 

Each county should, above all, have a complete S3^stem of drainage 
to purify and fertilize the soil, which, in the extensive districts of the 
country, is of the same relative importance as the purification of air 
is in the cities, and so arranged as to make the drain- water also 
useful in the drier parts of the district for purposes of irrigation. 

Each county should next arrange a sufficient system of forest 
parks, or wooded lands, whereby to purify the air and water, and 
extend to their soil that protection which causes the tree-covered 
oasis to bloom forth in perrennial beauty, furnishing water, vegeta- 
tion, and shade to the weary traveller in the midst of the desolation 
of Sahara. For the influence of such parks, with their arboreal 
ventilation, extends not only to the health of the farmer, but also to 



92 LIBERTY AND LAW 

the productiveness of the soil. Its sure and immediate operation 
in this respect has been very effectively illustrated on our Western 
plains, where, by the judicious planting of trees, vast districts have 
been reclaimed for agriculture that were formerly considered irre- 
deemably unproductive. And as the waters of the Alps have brought 
under cultivation the once arid plains of Northern Italy, directed 
thither by skilful engineering, so might the heavy snows and rains 
that fall in the Sierra Madre, instead of being allowed to swell the 
floods of the Missouri, and of the other great rivers south of its 
source, and bring destruction to their rich bottom-lands, be used to 
assist in irrigating the vast barren districts that extend from the 
mountains eastwardly. Combined with the influence of the trees 
now being planted on those plains, the waters from the Rocky Moun- 
tains, directed by science to effect irrigation, would cause them to 
bloom forth into a paradise of vegetation as if by magic. 

To obtain this necessary arboreal ventilation and protection for 
every part of the country, a public park of one hundred and sixty 
acres should be laid out in each section of six hundred and forty 
acres of land, and each road in the county should be laid out 
with a double row of trees on each side, the supervision of which 
might be assigned to the agricultural schools of each county. The 
parks could be stocked with all kinds of singing and other birds 
that protect the trees, gardens, and fields against insects and vermin. 
The soil of the parks could also be sown with grass, and various 
kinds of grazing animals be admitted to lend additional charms to the 
landscape. 

If at all possible, — and a judicious system of canals in every State 
would make such a contrivance quite practicable, — each county 
should also be provided with a sufficient sheet of water, stocked with 
various productive and healthy fishes, to furnish food to the inhabit- 
ants and purify the water. These artificial or natural lakes would 
add materially to the health of the neighborhood, by moistening the 
air and absorbing on its part the impurities of the atmosphere. 

Such a system of parks, trees, and lakes would clothe the whole 
landscape with rare beauty, and cause it to breathe forth sweetness, 
fragrance, and health. Nor should the system be confined to the 
counties. Besides these county parks, it would be recommendable 
to set aside in thR several States, wherever it is practicable, a more 
extensive tract of forest grounds, such as is now proposed for the 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 93 

State of New York in the Adirondacks, with their more than eight 

hundred thousand acres of a magnificent forest, that secures to the 

» 
beautiful Hudson its perennial flow of waters, and sweetens every 

current of air that sweeps over it, and such as Congress has secured 
in the magnificent park of the Yosemite Valley, for the common re- 
creation and enjoyment of ttie American people. 

Congress should also grant lands for State parks, one or more in 
number, to the new States and to the Territories, for the use of the 
people of each State and Territorj^ forever. Congress should also 
grant to the same States and Territories, for the use of the agricul- 
tural schools, three by three sections of land in one tract in each 
county for the establishment, use, and support of agricultural, min- 
ing, mechanical, and other schools, to be devoted to such purposes 
forever. There should also be reserved six sections of land in each 
township of thirty-six sections for the support of the other schools, 
colleges, and universities proposed to be established in this work, so 
that a permanent endowment may be created for public education for 
all time to come. 

By such a system of parks, etc., — more especially if it is accom- 
panied by the planting of the eucalyptus, the myrtle, and other odorous 
flowers in swampy localities, trees and flowers that destroy by their 
absorption of malarious and carbonic acid gases, and remove by their 
exhalations of oxygen, all the impurities of the air, — the malarious 
diseases, now familiar to agricultural districts, will be gradually sub- 
dued, a greater evenness of temperature gradually secured, and all 
nature placed under additional control and direction by the science 
and art of man. 

Grand forest parks will break the violence of storms, inhale as it 
were the surcharge of electricity from the clouds and the impurities 
of the air, and while feeding on these exhalations and those of the 
water, restore to all forms of life the pure ox_ygen for vitality. By 
means of this arboreal and floral ventilation and purification of the 
air of rural districts, the inhabitants of all cities near them will be 
furnished with pure, invigorating air, while the aspect of all the fresh 
life of the trees, plants, and water will irradiate in every direction 
new sensations of pleasure, of enjoyment, and of health. 

The comparatively new country composing our republic is still 
only sparsely populated, and amply large enough to furnish its pres- 
ent and future inhabitants, for many years to come, with room in all 



94 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

villages, cities, townships, and counties for the introduction of all 
sanitary safeguards herein proposed for the preservation of the purity 
of the air, the food, and drinks consumed by the people, and to fur- 
nish them the means for recreation, amusement, and physical de- 
velopment. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

PUKE rOOD AND DRINK. 

To provide, furthermore, all other kinds of food and drink for 
the human body in their natural condition of healthful purity, the 
legislative power in each State must regulate — 

1. The sale of all food and drinks consumed by man, so as to 
secure them to the consumer in their unadulterated purity. 

2. The preservation of the health of all animals, birds, and fishes, 
and the soundness of all vegetables consumed by man. 

In the primitive condition of man, each individual furnished himself 
his own food and drink, and legislation to secure men from adultera- 
tion of the articles of diet was therefore unnecessary. But as men 
began to divide occupations and professions among each other, it 
became necessary that measures should be adopted to secure to the 
purchasers the purit}^ of their food and drinks. The practice of adul- 
terating the various articles used by men for consumption has indeed 
been carried to such a point, and is productive of such disastrous 
results in the spread of disease and crime, that the most stringent 
legislation has become necessary. 

In every community, therefore, a board of inspectors, composed 
of men sufficiently educated in the necessary chemical and other 
studies to qualify them for the office, should be appointed, and 
intrusted with full power to supervise all markets and other places 
where those articles are exposed for sale ; to supervise all slaughter- 
houses, and examine into the healthy condition of all animals 
intended for consumption, and also into the processes of fattening 
and feeding the animals, so that all vicious methods of using distil- 
lery-swill, malt-mash, still-slop, and other deleterious diet may be 
abolished. They should also report the manner in which the animals 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. ^^95 

are brought to market, and see that they do not become diseased by 
being crowded into unventilated cars, or by being driven beyond 
their strength, or b}' cruel treatment, or deprivation of food and 
drink on the way. Few persons have any notion of the enormous 
proportion of diseased meat brought to market under the present 
loose sj'Stem, where the owner of the cattle conspires with the rail- 
road people to crush as many sheep or cattle into a close car as the 
space will allow, without suffocation. 

These commissioners should also prepare game-laws, and laws 
regulating the introduction of productive and healthy fish into the 
different rivers, canals, and lakes of the State. 

They should also have power to inspect all liquors, wines, milk, 
alcoholic and other drinks consumed by the people, before they 
are offered for sale, at such times as may be deemed necessary, to 
prevent the poisoning or adulteration of drinks ; and likewise to 
inspect all drugs and medicines, so that none but pure articles may 
be put up for sale. 

They should also provide pure vaccine matter in proper quantities ; 
examine wells and water-works, and report on the condition of the 
water, after submitting it to all usual tests. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

It may appear to many, at first glance, rather too critical that I 
should enter into these minute details of sanitary regulations in a 
book on law and government. Let any one go to the Five Points, 
or along Baxter Street, of New York, and scent the vicious gases 
that arise from every house and alley, filling the streets with 
poisonous odors and exhalations, and he may realize how utterly 
futile must be every effort to reclaim the human race, arid lift up 
those human wrecks from their debasing physical condition, unless 
such measures as I have pi'oposed are adopted and carried out in 
their minutest details. Let him enter their terrible tenement-houses, 
and note the haggard faces, drooping bodies, and eyes that glisten 



96 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

with vice in proportion as they have drawn in the reflection of vice 
and imparity on every side in these miserable rooms ! Let him go 
next into the wealthier parts of the city, and smell through every 
water-pipe of the closet, the bath-room, and the wash-stand the same 
diseased smells of Five Points and Baxter Street ; breathe in every 
breath of air the same foul, curse-laden atmosphei'e, and he may 
realize the claim of one human being to be protected against the 
poisonous exhalations of another! Or let him enter our street^cars, 
our coaches, our railroad cars, with their closed windows shutting- 
out the pure air of G-od, and forcing rank poison down his lungs ! 

The new civilization cannot come or show itself except through 
healthy bodies, ruled b}^ health}^ minds ; and we cannot get health 
except through purity. Purity of air, of food, and of drinks will 
give us that physical health which, both strengthened by and sup- 
porting mental and moral purity, can alone raise our race to the high 
perfection which lies within its reach. The impurity of food and air 
has so accustomed men to impurities of all kinds, that chastit}'' ha& 
almost become a reproach, and men plunge into vice as naturally as 
into a foul-scenting atmosphere, or as they eat the diseased meats, 
and the decayed vegetables sold in the market-places. 

It is to remedy this state of things in its first and most immediate 
appearance, that the inauguration of such a sanitary system as I have 
described becomes the first duty of the law-maker. I well know 
that of recent years steps have been taken to secure this object. 
Nay, even a national public health association has been organized to 
effect some of the measures herein proposed. But all these efforts 
have been merely sporadic and partial ; and even in German}^, where, 
during the past few years, the science of public hygiene has at last 
been recognized as entering into one of the most needful depart- 
ments of State government, and been cultivated to an extent beyond 
that of any other country, a thorough and sweeping reformation has 
not yet been effected. 

An amateur national health society is not what we need, but a 
sanitary, department in each State government especially for this 
branch of the public service, which should collect all the statistics 
that are still wanting in relation to the laws governing the dissem- 
ination of diseases and epidemics, and the hygienic and sanitary 
measures whereby their propagation can be arrested ; showing also 
the influence of all the various kinds of food and drinks, occupations, 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 97 

recreations, and habits of life upon the happiness, civilization, and 
health of the people, with ample powers to enforce all the regulations- 
necessary to carry out its beneficent objects. 

Nor should it be forgotten that the sanitary measures recommended 
in this work would not only check disease and crime, eradicate hered- 
itary ailments and infirmities, but would also beautify, adorn, and 
utilize nature everywhere. Let any one picture to himself a city 
such as I have described, with every fourth square a public park, 
with forest shade-trees, public baths, and fountains of pure water 
for drinking; every fourth street a grand, airy, clean, and shaded 
boulevard, having double rows of shade-trees on each side and in 
the centre, and all the other streets with single rows of shade-trees 
on each side, — the houses exhahng freshness and cleanliness, the 
impure and miasmatic gases and vapors being carried away and dis- 
infected by the currents of fresh air continually rising as it becomes 
rarefied, — and then look at our present cities, with their utter want 
of arboreal beauty or cleanliness, their narrow streets, their blind 
alleys, their smoking furnace-stacks, and their ill-constructed houses,.' 
emitting the most deadly poison every morning, when the surcharge 
accumulated during the night seeks egress ! Life can be made very 
beautiful, but it is the law that must furnish the first condition, by 
compelling the selfishness of man to yield up ample spaces on the 
surface of the earth for arboreal ventilation and air purification, so 
necessary to preserve the health, happiness, and strength of the 
people. 

One would suppose, from the way in which our cities and villages 
are laid out and our houses are built, that there is not a sufficient 
supply of land in the republic to furnish the inhabitants room to draw 
one breath of pure air. When thieving despots had full sway, when 
tribes, races, and nations were continually at war with each other, the 
cities were diminished in extent as much as possible, and surrounded 
by fortified walls ; but now the improvements in the implements of 
war render such obstructions of no avail against well-appointed 
armies, and the fate of nations is determined by conflicts in the 
open field. It will, I hope, no longer be necessary to crowd the 
inhabitants of cities and villages within narrow limits and massive 
fortifications to protect them and their property from marauding and 
plundering emperors, despots, kings, dukes, or other military rob- 
bers. I believe that a new era is dawning upon the enlightened 

7 



98 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

nations of the world, an era of Liberty and Law, united in their syn- 
thesis of pohtical justice, wherein States may be founded and cities 
built upon, rational principles of sanitary science, and the inherent 
right of each citizen to pure air, pure food, pure drinks, and healthy 
recreation will be protected and enforced by the laws of each State 
in all federative republics. 

It has been objected that these necessary sanitary improvements 
will be very expensive. Can we not afford to be healthy, pure, and 
happy, when all the means to become so are, as it were, in our own 
hands? Such parsimony, that would rob the people of all that is val- 
uable in life on the score of economy, is fitly coupled with that 
prodigality which has led Congress to give awa}' to railroad monop- 
olies over two hundred million acres of land belonging to the people 
of the United States. 

The great difficulty seems to be, that while this public demand for 
sanitary legislation is split up upon numberless subjects, my sanitary 
code embraces them all. The city resident clamors for ventilation of 
the dwelling-houses, for clean sti'eets and a good sewerage system, and 
in so far agrees with me ; but is amazed when I propose to apph' the 
same principles of sanitary laws to the open country, by means of 
forests and irrigation, by cleansing the air, controlling the weather, 
and purifying the soil. This he considers visionary, or, at any rate, 
despotic. The farmer, on the other hand, cannot reconcile it with his 
notions of individual freedom, that the law should prescribe certain 
rules for the building of houses in the cities, so that the}^ may not 
engender and spread diseases. Hence a systematic sanitary code, 
like the one I have suggested, appears oppressive. The preservation 
of the public health and of the fertility of the soil is looked upon as 
a matter that should be left to individual effort, although the experi- 
ence of thousands of years has shown conclusively that any general 
result can be obtained only by united action. Besides, each person 
thinks only of his immediate self-interest. If he owns a valuable 
forest, he is not likely to be restrained from cutting it down and sell- 
ing the lumber by fears that future generations will suffer from the 
effects of his acts ; and even the farmers of our prairie lands are too 
careless or parsimonious to plant trees, and will not do so unless they 
can see immediate results and benefits. Even positive and great suf- 
fering will not prevent the destruction of, or induce the planting of 
new forests. We complain about grasshoppers, and the devastations 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 99 

which they bring upon our treeless lands of the West, as the locusts 
devoured the grain crops of Egypt after the fruitful lands east of the 
Nile had been changed into deserts by wanton destruction of Syrian 
forests, and yet we do our best to multiply the insects by devastating 
our forests. 

Our governors set days apart for general prayers, supplicating God 
that we may be delivered of this plague ; and whilst some of us follow 
the invitation, and petition the Almighty to destroy the insects that 
threaten starvation to our fellow-men in the West, others employ the 
same day to slaughter the birds that would destroy the insect hordes, 
without petition to Divine Providence. 

Hundreds of thousands of prairie-hens, sage-hens, quail, snipe, 
and wild birds are shot everj^' season for the mere sport of the thing, 
and these hundreds of thousands of birds would feed upon millions 
■of the insects we pray to be delivered of. 

We speak about starvation, lamenting the days when from his log 
house the farmer could shoot the game he needed for his day's dinner ; 
and whilst we pray that we may be delivered from famine, we do our 
best to provoke it by permitting the useless killing of birds, ducks, 
geese, deer, and buffalo, and allowing the numberless streams that 
water our country to diminish and stagnate from want of arbo- 
real protection, instead of exerting our energy and invention to en- 
large and purify their waters and fill them with life-supporting fish. 
For, beneficial as has been the recently established sj^stem of intro- 
ducing new fish into our countless rivers, that system must break down 
of itself if the rivers are allowed to run dry from want of siiflflcient 
arboreal protection. 

When we reflect upon this pitiless war against nature and man's 
highest hygienic interest, we feel almost tempted to wish back the 
times of old Persian tradition, when the followers of Orrauzd, the 
God of Light, carried on their warfare against Ahriman, the God of 
Darkness. For it is said of them that when they took the vow that 
bound them to the service of Ormuzd, they engaged themselves to 
battle untiringhi' against all the works of darkness upon the earth. 
Eyery obstruction to its fertilit}^ and beauty must be removed. 
Where death-exhaling swamps met their eyes, they planted myrtle 
and gum trees to convert them into vitalized arable lands. Where 
they found weeds and poisonous plants they plucked them out, and 
thereby purified the soil as well as the air and the watercourses. In 



100 LIBERTY AND LAW 

short, they tried to cultivate desert districts as laboriously as we try 
to turn our fertile regions into unproductive lands. In other lands, 
shelter and protection are freely offered to the sweet-voiced and mer- 
rily chirping birds that feed upon the insects which destroy the 
farmer's corn ; we do our best to exterminate them. Now, stringent 
game-laws, combined with the establishment of a one-hundred-and- 
sixty-acre park in every section of land, would afford these most 
useful friends of the farmer and sweetest companions of man abun- 
dance of shelter. Let us, then, have such parks, with beautiful trees,. 
small droves of mild -eyed deer, flocks of singing and other birds,^ 
and ozone-exhaling plants, — such as the clove, the lavender, mint, 
fennel, narcissus, the lemon-tree, the helioti'ope, the hyacinth, and the 
mignonette, — and each inhabitant of that section Avill have the enjoy- 
ment of as fine a park as the proudest English lord can boast of. 
Beauty, health, and economy will go hand-in-hand together to pro- 
mote a higher enjoyment of man's life. 

It is but just to say, however, that not all our States are equally 
vandals in the destruction of the productiveness of the soil. Take, 
for instance, the State of Nebraska, which has set apart one day of 
the year, called " arbor day," especially for the planting of trees, — 
offering a handsome premium in money to the farmer who on that 
day sets out the greatest number of trees. Then there is the State 
of Kansas, which also offers a bounty to those farmers who grow 
and cultivate forest trees for a specified number of years. Colorado 
has also done already some small things in the way of converting 
unproductive into fruitful lands by means of irrigation. And lest 
I should be accused of exaggerating the dangers to which I have 
referred, I beg leave to quote a few passages from a report made by 
Cyrus Thomas, president of the Normal Institution of Illinois and 
member of the United States Entomological Commission, to Dr. Hay- 
den, of the world-renowned Colorado Survey Commission. After 
dwelhno- upon the necessity of increasing our watercourses, espe- 
cially in the Western plains, he says : — 

"This discussion touches upon a great underlying fact, upon 
which the principle here involved depends. It is, that the entire 
inhabited world is growing dryer ; that already in our own country 
this is becoming evident, in spite of the opinions and assertions to 
the contrary. Man, by his folly, is assisting largely in this work 
of lessening the argricultural value of the farming lands of this 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 101 

country and of the world. A recent article in the Science Monthly sets 
forth vividly the effects of thus denuding the land of forests, showing 
that the vast areas on the eastern continent, once as fertile as the 
Mississippi Valley, are now barren and arid, sending forth its swarms 
of hungry locusts to prey upon the remaining fertile spots. But 
the destruction of timber is not the only cause of this change : the 
draining of marshes, ponds, and lakes, exposing to the sun the 
mj'riads of little rills to be dried up, thus conti'acting the evaporating 
or water-surface, has been one important factor in producing the 
result we see. Suppose that Congress and the Minnesota Legisla- 
ture, not willing to sanction the continuance of the thousands of 
lakes in Minnesota, as they require the roads to bend, bridges to be 
made, or bai-riers maintained, should go to work and drain them, what 
would be the effect? It would be but a short time before the western 
part of that State, the south-eastern part of Dakota, and the northern 
portion of Iowa would be as arid as these Western plains. Illinois 
and other Western States are already beginning to feel the effect of 
this unwise polic}^ of draining all our swamps and confining the water 
to its narrowest limits ; the rainfall is more uneven, and the sub- 
stratum once reached by shallow wells is sinking lower. 

' ' The true method is to stay this foolish policy, protect little rills 
with bordering shrubbery, expand as much as possible the water- 
surface, so as to increase the evaporation. The more and the larger 
the lakes and reservoirs we can make on these plains, the better. The 
cost is the great, the only real difficulty in the way. 

"Allow me to say, in closing, that I have no axe to grind in this 
matter, my object being to call attention to this important subject, 
which Congress must sooner or later take hold of. If some better 
or more feasible plan can be suggested, I shall be glad of it ; but 
certainly Mr. Elliott fails to meet the demand. It is less expensive, 
it is true, but then it entirely fails to accomplish the object proposed, 
■even admitting all that he claims for it." 

There is not a sentence in this that I cannot fully indorse. These 
lew passages, if carefully studied, will be found to contain the whole 
science of private and public ventilation. 

Napoleon, clear-sighted on this as on every practical subject, un- 
derstood the importance of this subject of forestry quite well, when, 
in 1808, he prohibited the felling of timber on the Rhine ; though little 
dreaming then that within some sixty-odd years Germany would rcnp 



102 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the benefit of his measures by the reannexation of Alsace and Lor- 
raine. But the benefits are quite visible now, just as the benefits of 
introducing the eucal3q)tus trees on the Algerian plains are felt by 
every inhabitant and traveller, and just as, under our own eyes, we 
can see on the island of Santa Cruz the doom that awaits our lands if 
we keep on in our work of eradicating from its plains the noble gar- 
dens of God. Twenty years ago that island, covered by magnificent 
forests, was one of the most fertile regions of the globe ; to-day^ 
shorn of its glory, it is a desert. 

As Gen. James S. Brisbih, of the United States army, who has 
given this subject great attention, expresses it: — 

"The United States should make appropriations and foster the 
replanting of forests. Congress should enact strong laws for the 
protection of timber on the public domain, and we should have a 
commissioner of forestry. Overseers of roads should be made t& 
plant trees along the highways, at the public expense. Railwa_ys 
should be compelled by law to plant trees along the whole of their 
lines, on either side of the track. We cannot in one, or even two 
generations, undo all the damage that has been done, but by begin- 
ning at once we may still be able to avert a timber famine in the 
United States." 

Ever}^ year we use over one hundred and sixty millions of wooden 
ties for our seventy- one thousand miles of railway, and these ties 
must be relaid every seventh j-ear. Our locomotives now consume 
more than twenty thousand cords of wood per day, and this con- 
sumption is steadily increasing. 

The rail fences, which our farmers will still erect in place of hedges, 
consume still greater quantities of wood. Most of our fences, indeed' 
nearly all, have to be furnished out of our forests, in spite of the 
expense ; for we have to pay out $98,000,000 every year to repair all 
the fences in the United States, the present value of which is esti- 
naated at the enormous sum of $1,800,000,000. 

To furnish all this wood we strip every year more than eight 
hundred thousand acres of forest lands alone in the three States of 
"Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, at v/hich rate all of their for- 
ests will be swept away in about fifteen years. 

In the whole United States there is now left only one really fine 
untouched belt of timber: that which covers about one-half of Wash- 
ington Territory and one-third of Oregon ; and even that belt, with 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. lOS 

its magnificent yellow-fir forests, — many of the trees reaching a 
height of three hundred feet, — is beginning to disappear. Cliina. 
and Japan have already made inroads upon it, and within less than, 
half a century (should the present destruction continue) it will be 
another desert of the Sierra Nevada slope. 

California has now left only some three hundred and fifty thousand 
acres of her grand woodlands. Happily, however, her people have 
already awakened to a knowledge of their past folly, and are endeav- 
oring to repair it as much as possible by cultivating the eucalyptus 
tree, the health-giving m3a"tle of Australia, which should be culti- 
vated over every section of our country south of 36° 30' north 
latitude, and especially in the marshy districts, since no other known 
tree so readily absorbs all the miasmas of the atmosphere and 
breathes them out again purified, as pure oxygen and magnetic 
ox^'gen, or ozone. No tree, indeed, is better adapted for our 
Southern soil and climate than this Australian importation. It 
grows rapidly in any mild climate, reaching a height of from thirty 
to forty feet in ten or twelve years, is beautifully shaped, and 
covered in spring with a magnificent crown of blossoms. But what 
is of infinitely more importance is its medical quality as* an infallible 
remedy against malarious fevers. Not only do the pulverized leaves^ 
taken internally, effect a speedy fever-cure, but the very atmosphere 
exhaled by the tree operates like quinine. It absorbs the moisture 
of swampy lands like a sponge, and purifies the air from all malarious. 
matter. About one hundred years ago the Jesuits brought it to- 
Europe, and planted some in the Roman Campagna. A large num- 
ber were planted on the lands of the celebrated cloister, St. Paul, audi 
in a few years all signs of fever had disappeared. Fifteen years ago- 
a number of those trees were planted in some of the swampy and 
feverish districts of France, with the same result. The useless and 
death-spreading swamps are now blooming forests and fruitful, 
fields. 

In the East the destruction of timber has been still more enormous.. 
New York State has lost nearly all its beautiful maple, beech, pine,, 
hemlock, walnut, and hickory forests, so that now only the Adiron- 
dack woods and a portion of the Catskill forests are left it ; and the 
Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia are shorn of the 
magnificent verdure that, like a woman's hair, so adorned the beauty 



104 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

of their ranges and peaks, that their glory has spread over the whole 
world. 

And what are we doing to stay this vandalism? As good as 
nothing. 

Oiir increase of forests from planting is less than one million acres 
annually ; the decrease, from all causes, is over eight million acres 
annually. Chicago alone consumed in 1871 the wood of ten thousand 
acres, nearly, for fuel. 

This fearful waste of timber is still further increased by the rav- 
ages of fire. In the decade 1S6.0-70 over twelve millions of acres of 
wood were burned down wilfully^ for no other purpose than to " clear " 
the land ; and thousands of square miles of timber-land are destroyed 
almost every year by accidental fires. 

In consequence of this immense devastation of forests, the Poto- 
tnac has already lost a quarter of the volume of its waters ; the 
Hudson, a sixth; the Connecticut River, in former times quite navi- 
gable, is now barely a rivulet ; and the Oswegatchie, emptying into the 
St. Lawrence at Ogdensburg, New York, which formerly had water- 
power enough to run one hundred mills, now barely can keep ten in 
operation during three-fourths of the year. Even the great Western 
waters, the Mississippi and the Missouri, show already indications of 
a steady decrease of the volume of their waters. 

Bat the trees discharge a twofold function in the absorption of 
water. Wherever the soil is too damp, it evaporates its superfluous 
water through the trees in immense quantities, the roots drawing up 
the 1 um dity of the soil even from deep springs, and sending it 
through their branches and leaves to sweeten and purify the air. 
When, on the other hand, the atmosphere is overladen with moisture, 
the forests suck up the rain-mists, and in this way greatly check 
freshets and overflows of waters. 

This explains why, in woodless regions, long seasons of drought 
are suddenl}^ followed by violent rainfalls, such as caused the freshets 
that some years ago worked fearful destruction in the river valleys of 
Pennsylvania and Ohio. 

This explains also why damp regions require forests to dry them, 
whilst dry regions need woodlands to bring them the moisture for 
which they are parching. 
1 The same trees that drain the swampy lands of Illinois would assist 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 105 

in irrigating the desert plains of Colorado. The same trees, that 
would in ordinary seasons supply the Upper Missouri with a suffi- 
ciency of water, would in times of great rains or snow-melting pre- 
vent disastrous freshets and overflows. 

I have confined myself, so far, mainly to the vindication of my 
sanitary scheme in its application to the open country ; more espe- 
ciall}^ as the purification of the country must act with equal benefit 
upon the cities, and keep them free from the malaria which is now 
brought to them by the winds, and increasing the foul air which they 
generate themselves. But the main reason why I have spoken more 
ininutel}'' of sanitary legislation for the open country is, that its ne- 
cessity for the cities is already pretty generally conceded, though not 
nearly to the extent required. Nor will a sanitary system for cities 
ever effect the results aimed at until my S3'stem of public parks and 
fountains is made a permanent part of it. Sewers will do a great 
deal to keep the soil of cities free from disease-spreading matter, and 
A^entilation will do much to keep the dwellings supplied with fresh 
air ; but without a sufficiency of trees, neither the soil nor the air can 
ever be thoroughly purified. I may add here what I li..ve already 
suggested in referring to the forest parks of the country: that great 
assistance in the purification of the air can be derived from certain 
trees and flowers. This is of special importance to the inhabitants 
of cities, as every house can thus be constantly purified at scarcely 
any cost ; while at the same time that the lungs inhale with delight 
the fresh and electrified atmosphere, the eye will be charmed with 
the beauty of the plants. 

But there is still another branch of sanitary legislation, which every 
year becomes more important, as our railroads extend, horse-cars are 
introduced, and travel consumes more of the time of our people. 
This novel branch is the establishment of sanitary legislation for our 
public vehicles, railroad cars, horse-cars, etc. At the first glance 
this may seem to be an insignificant feature, but this it is by no 
means. Let it be considered, for instance, that the people of the 
United States spend every year over one billion hours in these cars. 
One thousand milUon of hours of human life is equal to one hundred 
and fourteen thousand years of that most precious of all boons ; and 
these one hundred and fourteen thousand years are exposed every 
year to a condition of atmosphere far more deathly than the risks that 
attend railroad-travelling from other causes. Collisions and runnino- 



106 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

off the track are mere accidents ; it is a pure chance whether they 
will occur or not, and if they do occur, whether they will kill or not. 
But the filthy atmosphere of the cars is not an accident. As the cars 
are constructed now, it is of necessit}^ an inevitable desti'oyer of life,, 
to which 3^ou voluntarily submit yourself when you enter the car. 
For the so-called accidents you can get accident poUcies ; but, seeing- 
that those accidents occur so ver3'^ seldom, an accident policy is reallj'- 
of no use. • But you cannot obtain a polic}'^ to reimburse you for the 
amount of vitality you lose by the foul air which you inhale in the 
cars during your journey. 

The normal ratio of carbonic acid, which expression involves all 
the foulness in the atmosphere, is but 0.035 per cent in the fresh air. 
Whenever the percentage reaches 0.06, the air is unhealthy and 
begins to gTow dangerous. 

Compare with these figures the fact that thirty-five analyses of the 
atmosphere in railroad cars, which were undertaken in Massachusetts, 
gave as result: Ratio of carbonic acid in smoking-cars 0.228, in 
i-egular cars 0.232 per cent, or nearly forty times the amount beyond 
which the presence of that gas is seriously injurious to health. To 
reduce this 0.232 per cent of deathly gas to the minimum of 0.06 per 
cent, it is necessary that a car containing sixty adult passengers 
should be furnished every hour with at least two thousand cubic feet 
of fresh air. 

Is not this, therefore, a proper subject for the interference of gov- 
ernmental legislation? It is true that the " Car-Builders' Association 
of the United States" has already given this subject its considera- 
tion, and at its last annual convention in New York passed resolutions 
in regard to the matter, urging a proper system of ventilation for 
railroads. But we know well what such sporadic resolutions mean. 
The only effective means to bring about the required reform lies with 
the law, which takes the subject from individual inclination to general 
necessity. 

For if sanitary legislation is incompatible with individual freedom, 
then let us abolish all our sanitary boards of health, all our laws 
for the cleaning of streets and alleys, for the removal of dead 
animals, for the estabhshment of slaughter-houses, and for the 
erection of sewers ; let the druggist sell poison in any quantity 
to any customer who asks for it ; let us repeal all laws for the 
inspection of boilers, and all our building-acts. In short, let the 



PUBLIC HYGIENE. 107 

government, in carrying out its duty to protect the life of its citizens, 
confine itself to the primitive interpretation of that duty, as current 
amongst the rudest tribes of men : to protect that life simply against 
the direct assault of other individuals, or against murder. 

But if our government has passed beyond that primitive state, 
and if it has any authority to exercise the functions which I have 
just mentioned, then let us not stop at the patchwork of sanitarj'- 
legislation which we have in fragmentary efforts for several discon- 
nected parts of our country, but contrive a complete sj^stem of such 
legislation for the whole United States. 

I may add, in conclusion, that vay system of Public Hj'giene rests 
on the principle, that the State and Federal governments alone have 
the power to enforce laws to preserve the pubhc health, and that 
nearly all diseases to which the human bodj' is subject are pre- 
ventable. I will close this chapter with some quotations: — 

Dr. Simon, the most distinguished of all European sanitarians, 
says, for instance, that "the preventive power which we possess 
over disease is among the happiest possessions of science. Scien- 
tific and professional men are stud3dng the sickness and death rates 
of communities, and are appljdng the results of inquiries to discover 
or lessen preventable diseases. Diseases induced by some specific 
body, or by anomalies in the quantity or quality of food, or as the 
products of vegetable and animal decomposition, or specific emana- 
tions from the body in a state of disease, are preventable." Another, 
almost equally as high in rank in sanitary science. Dr. Tanner, says 
that disease and untimely death result not from necessity, or from 
chance or accident, but really from the infringement of those laws 
and conditions on the due observance of which the Creator has 
decreed that the health and welfare of the various organs of the body 
depend.. 

Dr. Rush writes that the means of preventing pestilential fevers 
is as much under the power of human reason and industry as the 
means of preventing the evils of lightning or common fire. So 
satisfied was he of the truth of his opinion, that he looked for the 
time when our courts of law should punish cities and villages for 
permitting any of the sources of bilious or malignant fever to exist 
within their jurisdiction. Florence Nightingale truly saj's there can 
be no stronger condemnation of any town than the outbreak of fatal 
epidemics in it. 



108 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



PUBLIC EDUCATIO]^. 



CHAPTER I. 

EELATION OF MOEALITY AND LAW. 

The conception of law has a twofold peculiarity. It is that of a 
power and knowledge that lies wholly beyond nature ; for nature has 
made no provision against the interference of one man's freedom and 
activity with the freedom and activity of the other, but leaves to man 
€very possibility of killing, injuring, and checking the freedom of his 
fellow- man. 

Nor is the conception of law that of a moral force ; for the moral 
law, manifesting itself as a command to realize the highest good 
and happiness, addresses itself to each member of the moral world 
with categorical necessity and in perfect harmony. All men have 
the same common moral, as they have the same common physical 
world, so that the moral acts of all necessarily and of themselves 
harmonize into one. The moral law, therefore, does not need the 
conception of right or wrong to enforce itself, and were its rule 
established, the power of law would be no longer necessary. 
' But the moral law cannot manifest and enforce itself except in 
beings that have already developed themselves into freedom and 
morality ; and it is tliis that gives rise to the conception of right and 
law as the intermediate force whereby men are to be enabled to 
develop their freedom, under the law, to a degree that shall make 
possible the supreme rules of moralit3^ 

It is this moral law, this world of an absolute and universal good, 
that each individual should aspire to realize in his own person, and 
in the subduing of all evil, with its consequent physical ailments; 
and it is only in thus subjecting himself to the greatest good that the 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 109 

individual fii'st becomes truly free, giving highest form of expression 
through his works to the inspirations drawn from it and the intuitions 
of its grandeur, truth, and beauty. It is thus, through a sj^stem 
of individual moral beings, that the highest good is reflected in an 
infinite manner from different stand-points of beauty, and that within 
His one world of unlimited glory God has created infinite universes 
through the different mirrorings, translations, and intuitions of each 
individual : every monad reflecting in a new, beautiful way the glory 
of the highest. It is thus from the divine fountain of love and 
goodness endless inspirations of beauty and truth ripple forth with 
circles of wondrous perspectives, evermore extending the power of 
the human mind for the attainment of its higliest destination and its 
greatest good and happiness. 



CHAPTEE n. 

THE RIGHT TO REST. 



It is through law that man is to rise to this state ; the law is to be 
the intermediate agency between man's primitive natural condition 
and his ideal as a fitly and harmoniously developed exponent of the 
highest good, or as a completely free being ; for in complete freedom 
this highest good finds its expression. This freedom he aspires to 
attain ; to secure it, and for no other purpose, does man establish 
law and a State organization, and no State organization has any claim 
to be tolerated which does not provide for securing this freedom. No 
man to whom the means of realizing this, his destination, are denied 
by a State, is bound to obey it; the State not having respected his 
rights, he cannot respect it. 

In wisest forethought, the great legislator of antiquity, Moses, set 
apart one out of every seven days for the purpose of securing time 
to worship God and to attain moral culture to even the meanest of 
slave-laborers ; and it is a disgrace to our age that we are not yet 
further advanced, and that countless men and women are still forced 
to work at all hours, so that night brings no leisure for the development 



110 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

of their higher natures, and Sunday scarcely a few hours of time 
necessary for physical recreation. Na^^, in how many manufacturing 
districts are not even young children thus locked out by slavish labor 
from development and education ! 

The State should, by law, establish a minimum quantity of time, to 
be secured to children and adults respectively, for the development 
of their higher natures and the exercise of their real freedom. It is 
the time thus secured which really establishes the true wealth of a 
man. Not in proportion as he has gold and silver coins, or paper 
tokens of wealth, but in proportion as he has time for the culture and 
exercise of his true freedom, should a man be classed wealthy. His 
deeds of freedom are his riches ; every additional hour of leisure 
from mere toil, every hour of spare time wherein to work out his 
individual share in the attainment of the highest good and happiness 
which a State can make accessible to its citizens, increases in that 
proportion the wealth of the State. It is, therefore, a contradiction 
of the end and aim of a State organization when a State counts itself 
rich because its citizens, by slavish toil, produce or manufacture to 
exorbitant degrees. It is the relief from such inordinate toil that 
constitutes wealth. 

In an unconscious sort of way this truth has manifested itself in 
various labor-movements, both here and in Europe ; but it is a truth 
which should not be rendered abortive by crude advocacy and the 
one-sidedness of a class, but which the State itself should announce 
as the fundamental principle of its laws governing labor, money, and 
property. 

Since Sunday is by the great majority of the people of the United 
States recognized as the fit and appropriate day for such rest, the 
law should make that day sacred to rest, instruction, and moral con- 
templation by forbidding absolutely all kinds of labor ; so that not a 
single one of the citizens may have reason to complain that he has 
not time for the cultivation of his higher faculties and nature, of his 
social qualities, and for the recreation of his mind and body. 



PUBLIC EDUCATION, 111 

CHAPTER III. 

THE RIGHT TO SCHOOLS. 

It is not suflScient, however, that the State should provide the 
requisite time for the attainment of culture : it must also provide 
the means necessary to realize this ; whereby the State will attach all 
its citizens to a pure obedience to the laws, and prove that the govern- 
ment established to secure the greatest good, happiness, morality, 
inteUigence, wisdom, and perfection of its citizens is the best and 
surest friend of each person in the State. In this way will each one 
learn to love the law, which affords him such absolute protection, and 
secures him in the enjoyment of all his rights and the development 
of all his faculties. 

These means are schools, institutions for the harmonious develop- 
ment of all our faculties to the utmost possible perfection, and of 
clear insight into all the problems of life, so that the darkness and 
superstition accompanying ignorance, which are the main obstacles 
to the development of man's freedom, may be forever swept away 
from the face of the world. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE NATURE OF EDUCATION. 

Everything moves by law ; as in the physical, so in the intellectual 
and moral world : both worlds in perfect harmony and accord. It is 
the chief task of education to awaken and cultivate an insight into 
this lawfulness of all phenomena, so that the world of mind and 
inner soul vaay no longer seem to clash with and oppose the world 
of nature, but be found to move to the same measures and tunes, and 
that the smallest event in the physical world would be seen to fall into 
perfect harmony with the plan and events of the moral world. Thus 
the world of nature will no longer appear man's antagonist, but his 
friend and home, as it has not yet been in any age, and develop 
supernal radiance as expressing, under man's constantly extending 



112 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

control and dominion, the wonders of the intellectual and moral 
universe, which the people of former ages believed were hidden by 
nature ; while, on the other hand, the creative power of the intel- 
lectual and moral universe will illumine ail with new and ever-growing 
and varying beauties, — even as the body of man is beautified by his 
moral and intellectual nature in the progress of civilization, making 
the body and mind of the civilized man of culture reflect the glory 
of the divinity with infinitely greater splendor than it is ever seen in 
the bod}?^ and mind of the uncultured savage. 

Thus, in the studies of mathebaatics, physics, natural history, and 
medicine the teacher will develop a knowledge of the manifold phe- 
nomena of nature, point out their separate laws, and the harmony and 
correlation of those laws, and show how all laws have been provided 
for by the phenomena in an absolute intelligence, and continue so 
to be provided as new orders of phenomena are made known and 
present themselves for classification. 

In the studies of history, geography, politics, law, social science, 
and philology the teacher will, on the other hand, point out in the 
course of human civilization, with all its attainments in art and cul- 
ture, the proportionate growth of the highest good and happiness, 
and how it moves in rhythmic movements and symmetrical propor- 
tions towards the establishment of its ideal. 

Finally, in the study of philosophy, the science of all sciences, 
the teacher will teach the source of all knowledge in an examination 
of even that knowledge itself, its nature and condition, thus making 
known the source of all truth, since all truth is a knowledge and the 
fountain of the fundamental principles of each special science and 
branch of knowledge. In this highest of all sciences the last veil 
shall fall from the mind of the scholar, and the whole universe appear 
to him in full clearness. 

But the teacher is not only to unfold to the intellect the wonders 
of the universe and exhibit their harmonious relation, he is also to 
teach the pupil the course of action he is to perform in this world, — 
his practical duty, — firstly, in regard to himself : the vocation he 
may choose in active life, and to purify and cleanse his own mind 
and body, so that he will be fit to attain the greatest good and 
happiness in the pursuit of that vocation of which his faculties are 
susceptible ; and, secondly, in regard to others : that the ultimate as 
well as the present greatest good and happiness of all men must 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 113 

of necessity be always the aim and object of each man, and that men 
must love the law, by means of which alone this is made possible. 

This opens up the studies of ethics, morals, and aesthetics, or of 
intuition and inspiration, — studies now altogether neglected in public 
education, and yet so essential to the development of man's higher 
nature, which requires such development with paramount necessity 
in our age of materialistic tendencies and Mammon-worship. 

With this high view of the faculties of man, the resurrected notion 
of man's descent from the ape, and the survival of the fittest, can 
of course have little in common. Based upon the altogether un- 
supported national economical theory of Malthus, — that population 
increases in a geometrical proportion, while the means of life increase 
only in arithmetical proportion, and that thus only a few have the 
means to survive, — this notion would make us believe what no history 
of facts ever has demonstrated or can demonstrate : that in the grand 
war for existence only the highest developments can survive. All 
history shows this assertion to be a pure fiction and metaphysical 
coinage of the brain. The highest civilizations have perished, and 
the rudest of Africa and Asia have survived. All history of natural 
phenomena contradicts it, as Cuvier demonstrated already in 1830, 
when he showed that, so far as historical experience extends, no 
transition of one type of organisms into another is traceable ; the 
ibis on the monuments of Egypt is the same as the ibis of to-day ; 
the earliest sculptured form of man is precisely what it is now. It 
is not so difficult to comprehend how God made man. But it is 
utterly beyond the power of mind to understand how an ape pro- 
duced man; and the greatest anatomist of England, Huxley, -has 
moreover shown that there are differences in the structure of man 
and that of any known kind of ape, which makes it easy to detect at 
a glance to which species the bones belong. 

Indeed, so far as ail historical knowledge extends, — and it is pure 
metaphysical subtlety to speculate beyond that, — man has always 
exhibited the same high faculties that he possesses to-day, has always 
been capable of the same development of those faculties, and always 
been subject to the same earthly end of them — death. Nowhere is 
there an historical instance of apes changed into men, nowhere an 
historical instance of men transformed into other creatures. Man 
may live forever and forever, and he will still be man ; the ape may 
continue for millions of years, and he will still be an ape. 



114 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

Permanence and development of the permanent are the two ever- 
lasting opposites of the universe, and their synthesis is reached in 
education. The infinity of life that we are sure to live in the ever- 
lasting life beyond the grave will still leave us men, — the same men we 
were on this earth, with all our memories of its manifold sweetnesses 
and inexpressible sorrows. Far more perfect we shall be, no doubt, 
growing bej^ond our highest expectations in goodness, happiness, 
beauty, and wisdom ; and j^et will be neither transmigrated into 
beasts, as Pythagoras taught, nor submerged into God, as Brahma 
fancied, but remain forever men, to whatever grander heights of 
development we may be raised above our present. 



CHAPTEE V. 

■ CLASSIFICATION OF SCHOOLS. 

As a means to all these studies, the body of the student must be 
taught: first, generally in gymnasiums, for the development of its 
fullest health and strength, and agility of its limbs ; and, second, 
specifically for the development of the various senses and organs, 
according as the pupil may need for his chosen vocation in life. 

Thus, schools have a threefold function : — 

1. To develop the body so as to make it in everj'- respect a com- 
plete, healthy, diligent, and well-trained expression and instrument of 
the soul and mind. 

2. To develop all the faculties of the mind, and all senses and 
organs of the body, according as the pupil maj'- choose his vocation 
in life, for the perception and realization in himself and all others of 
the highest good and happiness. 

3. To develop the moral faculty, or knowledge of, reverence for, 
and implicit subjection to the idea of the highest good. 

And a complete system of schools involves the establishment of — 

SCHOOLS FOK PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 

Gymnasiums, with military schools attached to them, for the devel- 
opment of the body and instruction in military practice, which are to 
be attached to all the following schools, except the university : — . 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 115 

SCHOOLS FOK INTELLECTUAX EDUCATION. 

1. Common schools — for teaching the first elementary branches, 
and graded so as to prepare the pupil for either one of the follow- 
ing:— 

2. Agricultural schools — comprising botany, landscape arboricul- 
ture, pomology, gardening, vegetable chemistry, geology, zoology, 
and surveying. 

3. Industrial schools — for teaching all kinds of industrial labors 
and works, and the secret arts of the trades. 

4. Schools of technology or useful arts — wherein are to be taught 
civil and military engineering, mechanical engineering, geology and 
mining engineering, building, engraving, photographing, telegraph- 
ing, navigation, and astronomy. 

5. Schools of fine art — for educating artists in the various fine 
arts : painting, sculpture, architecture in its character as art, music, 
and poetry. 

6. High schools — where the higher branches will be taught, pre- 
paring pupils, according as they may choose their vocation in life, for 
either of the following : — 

7. Normal schools — to be established exclusively for the educa- 
tion of teachers. 

8. Business schools — for the education of pupils in all classes of 
business : manufacturing, commerce, banking, and office business. 

9. Law schools —for the education of lawyers. 

10. Schools of medicine — for the education of doctors and sur- 
geons. 

11. Colleges — where the highest branches of all knowledge and 
science are to be taught, so as to raise a corps of men devoted exclu- 
sively to culture and science, for — 

12. The university. 

Education of the moral faculty to be a part of the duties and pur- 
poses of every school, except the gymnasium and the university. 



116 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

CHAPTER VI. 

SCHOOL EXHIBITIONS. 

It will be well to arrange for each school a system of rewards or 
premiums, by means of which to incite the scholars to unremitting^ 
effort and awaken their sense of honor, which is the same as their 
self-respect, whereof Kant says that it is the ultimate basis of all 
morality. 

For the common schools this can be easily arranged by the distri- 
bution of medals for morality, industry, learning, and good behavior, 
and by other tokens of approval and rewards, which have a far hap- 
pier effect in inciting the scholar to increased effort than punishments, 
that only degrade him in his own eyes, and by thus lessening his self- 
respect, undermine his whole moral nature. 

The agricultural schools should have annual exhibitions in every 
county, in which all the farmers of the county might join in annual 
fairs, where scholars and practical farmers would meet together and 
interchange thoughts, experiences, and learning, and where the 
teachers of the agricultural schools might distribute medals of reward, 
both among their own scholars according to their respective profi- 
ciency, and among the farmers according to the results of their 
respective labors, thus encouraging and stimulating a healthy rivalry 
and spirit to excel in producing the very best of that kind of vegetable 
and animal food with which the welfare of all citizens is so intimately 
connected. 

The industrial and technological schools might, where it is practi- 
cable, unite with the agricultural schools in a common exhibition, 
making mutually known to each other what has been accomplished by 
either in their separate branches, and uniting in common festivities. 

The same system of rewards should be applied to all otlier schools ; 
and it would be well if the State should take appreciative cognizance 
of the moral conduct of its citizens by acknowledging rare acts of 
self-devotion, philanthropy, and charity. 

In this way the fundamental principle of our organic code, that the 
true end and aim of all government is to attain the highest good, 
happiness, and wisdom for the individual and each of his neighbors, 
would be steadily deeper engrafted into the hearts of the citizens. 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 117 

■and men would cease to regard the attainment of a position of 
power, place, or of superfluous wealth as their proper aim in life. 
The curse of American civilization, love of such power, place, and 
wealth, and sacrifice of all noble ends in life to their attainment, 
would be eradicated, or at least greatly diminished. 



CHAPTER Vn. 

THE EDUCATION OF EVERY SCHOLAR FOR A VOCATION. 

To perceive and realize for himself and others the greatest good 
and happiness in a State, each pupil in early life must choose a voca- 
tion, and in the above system of schools each pupil will be enabled to 
prepare himself for the vocation he chooses, and thus to enter life 
fully equipped with means to earn his livelihood immediately after his 
■education is con^pleted. Nor need he spend any time in studies that 
are not necessary for his vocation and general culture, and will thus 
be enabled all the better to learn the particular vocation of his choice. 
The pupil, for instance, who aspires to become a lawyer, can, imme- 
diately after passing through the common school and high school, — 
in which latter he can select only such studies as will be beneficial to 
him for his profession and general culture, — go to the law school ; 
while the one who wishes to become a farmer can, immediately after 
liaving passed the common school, advance to the agricultural school. 

In order to make this education accessible to every member of the 
State, and to furnish each person with the necessary knowledge and 
■dexterity demanded by his vocation, thereby making pauperism im- 
possible, the State must furnish to each pupil lodging, food, and 
clothing during the term of his scholarship. This will, of course, be 
done only when it is necessary and required ; but by doing it such 
institutions as work-houses will be rendered altogether useless, and an 
effectual stop put to the spread of crime. The expense will be com- 
paratively slight, and saved thousands of times in doing away with 
the institutions it is now found necessary to erect and support for 
paupers and criminals, and which, by the peculiar degradatory char. 



118 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

acter attached to them, keep permanent a peculiar and constantly 
increasing class of indigents, the dangerous element of every society. 

In all agricultural districts, and smaller villages and cities, for 
instance, there will be only few children and young persons who will 
require the support of the State during the time of their education ; 
and it is only in the larger cities that expensive measures will have to- 
be adopted. The immense majority of parents will always prefer to 
provide their own children with raiment and food. But by providing 
those who are unable to do this with the means of education, and 
furnishing the poorest child with an education, profession, or trade, 
the State wiU, for the first time in history, have realized the doctrine 
of human equality in its full and true sense, by placing in the hands 
of every citizen a livelihood. For the other distinction of life, which 
results from money, is but accidental, and of no value to him who- 
has the means of earning enough for his living, with the capacity of 
self-development placed equally in his hands. 

It is, of course, understood that all classes of education are open 
equally to both sexes. In the lowest class of schools, as well as in 
the highest, the university, both sexes rnay use, moreover, the same 
schools ; in all intermediate schools different ones will have to be 
arranged for either sex. In women's working schools, of course,, 
women only are admitted. 



CHAPTER Vm. 

ANALYSIS OF THIS SYSTEM OF SCHOOLS. 

I will now enter upon a more detailed account of the several classes 
of schools, and their peculiar character. 

GYMNASIUMS. 

In gymnasiums, the body in general is' to be educated into flexible 
obedience to the will of its possessor. As ever3^thing in the double 
world of nature and spirit moves in obedience to harmonious laws, so 
the culture of the body, as an instrument of the mind, infuses health 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 119 

into the physical and mental organization ; and the gymnasium is, 
therefore, both a sanitary and an educational institution, and its 
teacher or teachers must be competent in both respects. 

By nature the human body is a mere mass of organs, clumsy, shape- 
less, and disobedient; not a fixed, determined organization, like the 
body of an animal, but the indefinite, undetermined organization of a 
rational being, who is to work it out himself, — a body with no other 
character than that of determinability. Physical education is to take 
hold of this clumsy body and make of it the most artistic object in 
the universe, irradiating beauty by its glow and proportions as well 
as by the grace of its movements, and revealing the most developed 
strength and agility in each of its limbs. Wonderful quickness and 
power are to be developed in every part of the body, a strength and 
security of movement which seem almost supernatural, and the obe- 
dience of every limb is to be no longer sullen and slow, but quick 
and dexterous. 

To attain this development of the body, teachers must be selected 
that are well instructed in all the appliances of the science of gym- 
nastics, and with competent knowledge of the sanitary effects of the 
various kinds of gymnastical evolutions upon the body. One of the 
most beautiful exercises, imparting grace of movement, and at the 
same time enjoyable in a high degree, is dancing, which should 
therefore be taught in every gymnasium. Nor should this exercise 
be confined to the common dances, but reach to the highest 
branches of the art of dancing, wherein the movements of the 
bod}^ become the visible interpreters of the movements of the 
music. 

To ever}'' gymnasium there should also be attached a swimming- 
school, so that this healthy and refreshing exercise, a knowledge of 
which may so often preserve life, should be acquired by as many 
scholars as possible. 

With bodies thus developed into health, strength, and grace, and 
wherein the mind would exercise that instantaneous and perfect con- 
trol and force which is the result of such development, the men and 
women of the country would rise to a condition of self-reliance, 
strength, pride, and glory such as speaks to us through the finest 
statues of ancient Greece. Health and litheness would make every 
moment of life a dehght and joy. 



120 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



MILITARY SCHOOLS. 

If history emphasizes any fact it is this : that nothing is more fatal 
to the political liberties of the people of a State than the organiza- 
tion of an exclusive, distinct military body ; and the more numer- 
ous such a body is, the greater will be the oppression. Even where 
such a military body is organized among the people themselves, and 
for only temporary service and drill, as is the case in Germany under 
the landwehr system, the evil effects are directly apparent. Horrible 
as the object itself is for which military drill is needed, the spirit 
inculcated by the drill beai's even worse results ; for while war only 
destroys life, the spirit of submission and dependence which is in- 
fused by the drill, and which gradually prepares men for a condition 
of slaver}' in general, destroys all that gives value to life. Hence all 
countries have drifted more and more into political slavery as their 
standing ai'mies were increased ; and in Germany especially, such 
abandonment of formerly free and republican principles and feelings 
among the people for slavish subjection to imperial rule has patently 
been the result of its system of a military force which enlists every 
citizen, and thereby infects the whole population of the State with 
that military slavish spirit. 

Nevertheless, the time has not yet come when, under such an inter- 
national code as I shall propose, the military body of a State can be 
entirely dispensed with. We meanwhile need a small professional 
militar}^ force for naval and garrison duty, and at the same time we 
need another larger force, that shall make us at all times prepared to 
levy against any foreign power all the strength, art, and science of 
our government. For it is the most perfect State, the State of fullest 
individual freedom and least despotic power, which is in greatest 
danger of attack from the despotism of other countries, as most 
likely by its example to arouse their people to a struggle for a similar 
■condition of liberty under the law. 

The problem is, therefore, so to arrange matters that our govern- 
ment shall have at all times ready all the resources of the art of war 
and all the forces of the republic, without having a specially organ- 
ized military body, except the small one heretofore mentioned ; and 
this body can be reduced still further, if the police sj^stem proposed 
by me in another part of this work should be adopted. 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 121 

So far as the instruments of war are concerned, there need be no 
difficult}^ Fortifications can be built and kept in condition of de- 
fence, according to the most advanced principles of military science, 
without endangering the liberties of the people. Ships of war also 
can be constructed in sufficient number, and the necessary material 
of war for all branches of the service can always be kept on hand. 

So far as the men — the soldiers — are concerned, it seems to me that 
if the gymnasivim were to add to its course of instruction a military 
drill, the main body of an army — the infantry — would at all times 
be on hand. Such a government as I propose, with a body of men 
physically developed in eveiy way b}'' the gymnasium, and, moreover, 
practised in the drill of military service, needs no further special 
organization of that body to render it effective at any time. The 
men of the State would all be as conversant with the drill of the 
service as with their A B C's, ready at any moment to apply their 
knowledge ; and yet they would be without any organization until 
the moment of peril. 

The cavalry branch of the army, which is comparatively of small 
importance, could be formed in cities. Requiring, as it does, the 
drilling of horses as well as the drilling of men, and the exercise 
of large numbers at one time, it would be, perhaps, inconvenient to 
collect in the countr}'' a sufficient force at one time for the purpose 
of military training. But among the young men of the cities attend- 
ing the gymnasium a sufficient number could doubtless be collected 
to organize for instruction in cavalry practice, more especiall}^ as the 
exercises would necessarily take them out in the open country, and 
thus combine recreation and enjoyment with military instruction. 

Artillery practice might also be taught in large cities, but particu- 
larly in the districts adjoining fortifications and navy-j^ards. This 
branch of the service is of the least importance in actual battle, for 
its main effect is to produce fear by noise, and a proper degree of 
individual courage on the part of the infantry is always able to 
overcome it. Machiavelli pointed this out long ago, and wherever a 
fearless and educated infantry has been opposed to artillery, the 
result has corroborated his judgment. 

In this manner the State would have ready at all times an effective 
service, without the dangerous element of a specially organized mili- 
tary body. Against such an armj' of active, healthy, well-drilled, 
and intelligent freemen no other armj- of equal numbers could long 



122 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

hold out. And it is to be hoped that the international judiciary 
proposed in my system for the final settlement of all questions at 
issue between kingdoms, empires, and republics belonging to the 
international federative association of civilized, enlightened nations, 
will enable them to settle all disputes without resorting to war. 

COMMON PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

In the common public schools the child gets its first control over 
the instruments of all learning: reading, writing, and ciphering. 
Having acquired this control, the child is, by a judicious system 
of gradation, taught to applj? those instruments in the acquirement 
of a knowledge of fundamental history, geography, natural history, 
and finally, perhaps, the first principles of natural philosophy and 
chemistr}'-. 

In order to accomplish the most in the least time, the hours of 
school attendance should be as few as possible ; but the corps of 
teachers sbould be as large as practicable, so that each teacher njay 
have but a small number of children under his direct supervision. 
It is surely not necessary to keep children at exercises that tire their 
eyes and weary their young bodies, merely to while time away ; nor 
is it policy to intrust to one teacher more children than he can pay 
attention to. In Prussia, for instance, there is only one school- 
teacher for every fort}^ scholars ; and yet that same State thinks it 
necessary to employ one teacher, called corporal, for every six mili- 
tary scholars or soldiers. 

Needing only a few hours' attendance per day at the common 
school, the child will have ample time for the art school and the gym- 
nasium, and yet have abundant leisure for play, recreation, training, 
and self-culture at home. 

From the common public school the child can enter the agricul- 
tural school, or the industrial school, or the school of technology, or, 
if it decides to pursue a higher education, it may enter the high 
school. 

AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 

Agriculture, being the most independent profession, in that it fur- 
nishes man directly his food and the materials for clothing, will prob- 
ably be at all times the chosen vocation of the proportionately larger 
number of scholars, and should indeed be encouraged, rewarded, 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 123 

and made profitable in every way. The main problem of agricultuie 
is to gain the greatest amount of the various products from the least 
amount of land, without deteriorating the soil ; and in proportion as 
the State increases in population the importance of this problem be- 
comes greater, as will be shown more particularly hereafter, when 
speaking of the vast amounts of lands squandered upon the raih-oads 
through the recklessness of Congress. 

The scholar who chooses agriculture for his vocation must be in- 
structed in all the means science has discovered to solve that prob- 
lem, and at the same time be made practically conversant with the 
appliances of labor whereby to carry them out. 

For the latter purpose it is absolutely necessary that every agricul- 
tural school should be situated upon an extensive tract of land, 
whereon the various forms of agriculture can be carried out. Part 
of the land will therefore have to be laid out in a farm ; part in for- 
ests, orchards, and vineyards ; part in pasturage ; part in useful 
vegetable gardens, and part in artistic landscape and gardens. 

The scholars ma}'- be assigned to either branch of the work, or, if 
their stay at school is long enough, to more or all of them. 

For the former purpose it is necessary to set apart certain hours of 
the day for instruction in the various sciences relating to agricul- 
ture, — as, for instance, chemistry of the soil, vegetable chemistry, 
manuring, stock-raising, pomology, botany, landscape gardening, 
grafting, geology, and zoology. 

To these studies should be added lectures for the development of 
moral culture, and culture in general, — the secluded life of the 
farmer making it essential to his happiness that he should acquire a 
taste for the fine arts in their various forms, — and also a series of 
lectures on the constitution and laws of the State and of the feder- 
ative system. 

INDUSTKIAL SCHOOLS. 

Of the pupils of those schools who do not choose agriculture for 
their vocation, a numlier will doubtless engage in industrial pursuits, 
and should therefore be fittefd out by the State with all the knowledge 
necessar}^ for that purpose, in special industrial schools, with separate 
schoools for the instruction of women in labors and acquirements 
that are purely womanly. 

The industrial school for boj^s should provide and teach all kinds 



124 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

of work and manufacture practised in the State, as the taste of the 
scholar may single out for his vocation. These schools, as well as 
the agricultural schools, can be made productive, and the profits 
divided among the pupils and used for premiums. Still, it should on 
110 account be the object of the schools to be made productive for 
the State, since such a sj'stem would surely lead to oppression and 
corruption, and excite dissatisfaction among the scholars. 

The industrial schools for women should educate girls in all the 
work peculiar to housekeeping, and all other kinds of work that may 
belong peculiarly to women, — as, sewing, embroidery, knittings etc. 
At the same time, they should be allowed and encouraged to learn 
any of the other kinds of industrial work that any one might desire 
to choose for her livelihood, — as, telegraphing, printing, etc. But as 
the art of housekeeping, with its various elements, will in some way 
or another need to be known by every woman, special attention 
should be devoted to this branch of the school. All matters relating 
to the kitchen, the chemistry of cooking, the sanitary and gastro- 
iiomical elements of diet, and its rotation during the week and the 
seasons of the year, should be thoroughly taught ; as also the mode 
of keeping accounts for the household^ etc. 

In both classes of industrial schools a course of general culture 
and literatui'e should accompany the specific instruction, and also, as 
indeed in every school, a course of lectures on the constitution and 
laws of the State and of the Federation. 



SCHOOLS OF TECHNOLOGY. 

Schools of technology have alread}' been established in one or two 
of our States, but every State should have at least one. In these 
schools all the mechanical professions and the studies connected with 
them : physics, chemistry, thermo-dynamics, machinery, metallurgy, 
mineralogy, engineering, surveying, mining, engraving, photograph- 
ing, telegraphing, and navigation. 

As all these sciences are based upon mathematics, their study will 
Tiave to be made a specialty in the schoo*ls of technology, as also the 
study of astronomy, which is indispensable for several of the branches 
taught. 

Architecture, being not only an art, but also an engineering profes- 
sion, should also be taught in this its character, as building, in the 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 125 

technological institutes. This includes the teaching of architectural 
design and drawing, construction and applied mechanics, the chem- 
istry of building-materials, etc. 

As the government will have to rely upon the graduates of the 
schools of technology to supply its military officers in times of war^ 
the stud}'- of military engineering, surveying, and of all matters ap- 
pertaining to military science, should be made a special department. 

A course of instruction in general culture should also in these 
schools accompany the technical course of study, and should embrace 
the studies of modern languages, history, botany, and composition. 

SCHOOLS OF FINE ARTS. 

In the widest sense of the word, every work of the human intelli- 
gence as a manifestation of its creative power, in contradistinction 
from the works of nature, might properly be termed a work of art ; 
but usage has limited the use of that phrase to those works that have 
no other design than to exhibit man's creative power, and has signi- 
fied the limitation by speaking of the arts generally as fine arts^ 
although one of them — architecture — branches over into the useful. 

But all other fine arts have only the beautiful for their object: the 
beautiful, which is love ; the love, which is creativeness. Eveiy 
rational being loves by its very nature to create, and the love of art 
is therefore universal. It is to be expected that every pupil of all 
the other schools will apply for admission to the school of arts for 
the purpose of learning some one favorite art, which he can practice 
in the leisure hours of his future life, so that he may be able to fill 
up spare moments for himself and those around him with tlie enjoy- 
ment of pure beauty. 

But quite a number of scholars, to whom nature has kindly given a 
peculiar talent for some one of the arts, will wish to obtain a perfect 
education in the art chosen, with a view of making it their future 
vocation. These latter constitute a class of artists proper, while the 
former are only amateurs. 

For the artistic education of amateurs it will suffice to set apart 
one or two hours of study in the school of arts, while they are pur- 
suing their regular studies in the other schools to which they may 
belong. These hours might be arranged for the evenings. 

The pursuit of art being itself an enjoyment and pleasure, its study 



126 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

will not overtax the physical strength of any scholar, but rather 
recuperate it. Each amateur scholar must, of course, be at liberty 
to choose the art he desires to practise ; or to choose two, if he has 
the necessary time and energy. It is of the greatest practical value 
for the future enjoyment of life that every pupil of any school should 
acquire at least one art thoroughly, so that his taste for beauty may 
be sufficiently developed to appreciate it in every form. 

Those who desire to make a special vocation of some one particular 
art will, of course, make the school of arts their permanent home 
during their term of instruction. All the materials necessary for 
their studies should be furnished by the State. The art productions 
that are sold would amply reimburse the outlay. The remaining 
profit should, of course, go to the respective artists. 

Music being, of all arts, the one most easily practised under all 
circumstances of life, and the one most effective in amusing and in 
developing man's moral nature, because it appeals most intensely to 
his internalit}^, should be taught in some one of its forms, and, as 
much as practicable, to every child. It was surely not without hav- 
ing observed this, its effect, that the Greeks laid such stress upon it 
as an educational agent. 

HIGH SCHOOLS. 

The high schools take up education at the point where the common 
schools leave off, and pursue it in all its branches ; each pupil, how- 
ever, receiving only such education as his future vocation in life may 
demand. Those who wish to become business men, for instance, 
receive another course of instruction than those who desire to devote 
their lives to pure science, or to any one of the sciences, as philology, 
mathematics, etc. For it is not only useless, but positively injurious, 
to teach scholars matters that they cannot pursue in their future 
career in life. A smattering of Latin and Greek taught to a boy who 
intends to enter business life both takes his time and mind away from 
the studies he should pursue, and fills him with false conceit. Every 
citizen of the State should have his special function, and learn to be 
completely master of that, and not attempt to fill his mind with a little 
undigested knowledge of things that lie beyond his sphere. 

The pupils who have passed through their course of study at the 
high schools should then be allowed to choose either of the following 
for the completion of their education : — 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 127 

NOKIHAL SCHOOLS. 

The normal schools should be exclusively adapted and established 
for the education of teachers ; and it is absolutely necessaiy that 
there should be such schools to train teachers for their special pro- 
fession. The science of pedagogics, or teaching, has to be studied 
just as well as any other science, or we shall never get a body of 
teachers fit to take charge of the various schools of the State, and 
conversant with their art in all its branches and details. The normal 
schools are intended to educate a corps of teachers whose sole aim in 
life it shall be to teach, who shall consider this their permanent voca- 
tion, and devote all their skill and energy to carry on teaching suc- 
cessfully. The shifting body of teachers to whom we commonly 
intrust our schools, who take up the profession of teaching simply 
from temporary necessity, and who have to learn their science in the 
schools themselves, must be altogether dispensed with. Onl}' when 
this is accomplished can we rid ourselves of the text-book system, 
with the mechanical drill it inculcates, and which deadens the minds 
of the pupils, checking every development of freedom and individ- 
uality. 

Every teacher should be competent to teach without a text-book, 
whether it be history, geography, natural history, or any of the 
sciences, and should have learned the art of teaching so impressively 
that in conversation with his pupils, drawing them out and causing 
them to originate their own answers, instead of memorizing from the 
text-book the answer that is expected, he will illustrate all principles 
taught. 

It is only by such a mode of teaching that a teacher will ever 
succeed in making his pupil, think for himself, and comprehend 
thoroughly the reason of the matter taught, so that he shall be able 
in all his future life to remember it and apply it practically to any 
problem that may be sprung upon him. 

BUSINESS SCHOOLS. 

As things are at present, those children who desire to enter com- 
mercial, banking, manufacturing, or office life, do so unprepared 
by anj' especial instruction furnished them in our public schools. 
They thus have to learn whatever business they choose, altogether 



128 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

by experience, — a very slow and uncertain school, with indifferent 
teachers ; not very remunerative either, since the salary of the inex- 
perienced is necessarily small, — a circumstance that is a fruitful 
source of crime. 

Under the system of schools herein proposed, the pupil who aspires 
to a life of business will not be required to study a number of matters 
that are utterly useless for him in his future vocation, but enter from 
the high school directly into the business school, and there be taught — 

1. Whatever pertains to manufacturing or commercial life ; the 
nature and native places of the various articles of commerce, their 
mode of transportation, cost, insurance, etc. ; and all these matters, 
should be taught as thej'' are at the time, so that the scholar maj'- 
enter the world of commerce with a knowledge of the present, and 
not of a practically useless past. The art of book-keeping must, 
of course, be taught ; so also correspondence, and, when required,, 
modern languages. 

2. Banking in all its branches, its history and growth, and the 
science of money and finances. 

3. All kinds of office business, such as insurance, real estate,. 
notarial duties, and such other office business as may be carried on 
in the State. 

LAW-SCHOOLS. 

In every school a course of general instruction concerning the 
laws and constitutions of the State and Federation should be given ; 
but in the law-schools this instruction is to be special, and for the 
purpose of training a corps of lawyers, judges, and statesmen that 
shall be reliable and efficient. 

Only such persons as have finished the course of study at these 
schools, and received a diploma, should be allowed to practice law 
and be elective for the judiciary department of the State and Federa- 
tion ; so that no citizen may receive injury from incompetent judges, 
or by emplo3dng incompetent counsel. 

The study of pure law should be accompanied b}^ a course of the 
history of law and government in the various forms they have 
assumed in the development of the human race. Thus, besides the 
study of the organic law of the State and of the Federal government, 
of the State and Federal codes, civil and criminal, there should be a 
course on the codes of foreign countries, on the principles of com- 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 129 

mon law and equity, on ancient, feudal, and civil law, and finally, on 
international law and international jurisprudence. 

It must be borne in mind that the law-schools are to educate not 
only judges and law3'ei's, — that is to say, servants and interpreters 
of existing law, — but also legislators, — the makers of law, — and 
that hence there should be taught not only the existing and historical 
statutes and forms of law, but also the fundamental principles of law 
and government. These fundamental principles of the science of 
law, and their deduction from the fundamental principles of knowl- 
edge in general, will be furnished by the university, through its pro- 
fessors of philosophy. 

SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 

No one should be allowed to practise medicine in a State who has 
not passed the medical school and received a diploma, and no person 
should be allowed to sell drugs or medicines unless he has passed 
through the pharmacy department of these schools and received a 
proper cei'tificate. 

As the whole science of medicine, so far as it depends upon the 
effects of drugs, is purel}^ experimental, all systems of practise 
should be equally taught ; and for the same reason a record should 
be kept and arranged, under a proper system, to show the direct 
results that have followed the administration of any medicine. No 
science being so purely negative and dependent upon experiment as 
the science of medicine, it is of the utmost importance to have a 
continuous record of all experiments made with any kind of drug, — 
allopathic or homoeopathic, — or with any kind of mixture and the 
compounds of that mixture ; and such record, together with all other 
facts regarding diseases, the spread of epidemics, etc., should peri- 
odically be made public. 

Surgery, dentistry, diseases of the eye and ear, and indeed all 
diseases which require mechanical treatment, should constitute special 
departments of the science of medicine, since these diseases certainly 
admit a purely scientific treatment. 

COLLEGES. 

Under the above sketched system of schools, there will be left for 
entrance into college life only those young men or women who desire 
to devote themselves altogether to science. 

9 



130 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

The high school does not propose to educate its pupils any further 
than to fit them for entrance into the schools just named ; and hence, 
to raise them to a standard of education which alone will make them 
valuable members of the university, the college must step in as the 
mediating factor. The college is to furnish to such persons the i 

highest culture attainable to each one in the special department of 
science he may choose : mathematics, -physics, natural history, geog- 
raphy, astrononay, philology, history, sesthetics, etc. 

Having passed through the college, the student has served his ap- 
prenticeship of learning, and, becoming a master, enters into full 
and equal intercourse with all other men of science by means of the 
university. 

UNIVERSITIES. 

■ The national university is to be, not so much a school — that is, a 
place for teaching — as rather a place for the appliance and further new 
development of the highest grade of learning, the gathering-place of 
the chief men of the various sciences, and of all who desire to devote 
their life exclusively to science, for common intercourse and improve- 
ment, the central point from which each university, in conjunction with 
the universities of all other States, is to carry on the ultimate aim of 
nil States : to subjugate nature to the highest attainable extent unto 
the control and directive power of men, and to develop the highest 
culture and clearness i.i men, thereby realizing their greatest good 
and happiness. 

Here the most perfect instruments in this war of subjugation should 
be collected and arranged ; here constant experiments and observa- 
tions be conducted, and the result of all other private and public 
experiments and observations be gathered and reported again to all 
other universities and institutions, as may be requisite ; here the most 
complete libraries, art-galleries, museums, etc., should be established ; 
and liere, finally, the teachers of the highest science — of philosophy — 
should find their sphere of action opening up its treasures to the 
highest developed minds, and giving, from its universal form and 
substance, to every other science its fundamental principles and the 
form of its procedure. 

In this way all universities of the world may gradually form an 
organized body of all the world's learning and knowledge, each sep- 
arate one a nucleus and representation of all, and reflecting back upon 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 131 

all its own additional light and acquirement; realizing Leibnitz's 
great conception of an organized body of scientific men over the 
whole earth, working together disinterestedly for one common object, 
and each one doing the peculiar work assigned to him, so that no 
valuable time and labor may be lost in having the same thing done by 
many, as occurs constantl}' under the present unorganized system of 
things. 

A nation having such a university, and giving the best scholars of 
the countr}^ there assembled proper communication and influence 
with that part of the State organization for whicli they may be respec- 
tively specially qualified, would soon achieve results to excite the 
admiration and emulation of all its neighbors. With such a trained 
corps of scientific men, physical disease and hereditarj'- maladies 
could doubtless be almost annihilated, the forces of nature tamed 
and regulated beyond, the most sanguine dreams of this day, and the 
finances and property laws of the State so codified as to secure law, 
order, justice, happiness, and prosperity. 

For the power of man is infinite, and when he once opens his eyes 
to see clearly, he will discover means and remedies for every evil 
that afflicts the race. The superstitious notions of the past on all 
matters of religion, or law, or medicine, or social and political organ- 
ization being once removed, it will become apparent that the distrust 
in his own perfectibility on the part of man was unfounded, and that 
every problem of the race is capable of solution, and must be solved, 
and that it could not be a problem given to the race by the Divinity, 
had not the race the power to solve it. 

There is no necessity for misery, crime, and disease, and a social 
and political organization can and must be invented that will prevent 
them ; there is no necessity for living in dread of the forces of nature, 
and measures must be discovered b}'^ which to overcome them ; there 
is no necessity for the spiritual gloom and fears that send so man}' to 
insane asylums and premature graves, and a science of all knowledge 
must remove the last remnant of darkness from men's minds, and 
spread everywhere and over all time spiritual and intellectual light 
and clearness, developing the true inspirations. 

To make these discoveries, organize these measures, and spread 
this light, and thus to realize the highest good, wisdom, happiness, 
and perfection for all inhabitants of the State, should be the task of 
the universities ; and as they will be established by the State organi- 



132 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

zations herein proposed, one of the main objects of its teachers will 
necessarily be to perfect the organic laws of this system, and recom- 
mend an extension of its harmonious working, as experience may 
determine, for the preservation of the rights and liberties of men for 
all time to come. 



CHAPTEK IX. 

CONCLUDING EEMAEKS. 

The only objection that has been brought forward against the sys- 
tem of education proposed is that, on the extensive plan sketched 
out for it by me, it would necessarily interfere too much with indi- 
vidual freedom, and the natural control of parents over their children 
and their religious convictions. It seems to me, however, that this 
fear is entirely ungrounded, especially as I take distinct ground 
against compulsory education. 

My position on this subject is simply this : that a rational govern- 
• ment cannot be upheld by a people whose intellectual faculties have 
not been to some extent cultivated, and who have not been brought 
up to some kind of labor whereby they can earn their livelihood. 

This proposition seems to me to be indisputable, and a glance at 
the condition of any savage tribe will illustrate its truth in daily ex- 
perience. But that without which government is impossible must be 
supplied in the establishment of a government, and hence it is the 
positive dut}^ of every nation to furnish to all its citizens the means 
of developing all the faculties of their minds and bodies, and of ac- 
quiring a vocation in life by the exercise of which they can become 
useful members of the Commonwealth. Whether such citizens may 
elect to avail themselves of those means, is a question which must be 
left to their individual freedom to decide. They are at liberty to 
grow up in ignorance and laziness, but if they thus become paupers 
or criminals, they are debarred from pleading as an excuse the ab- 
sence of education, in the widest sense of the word, as it is used by 
me. The State has now the right to say to them, which right it 
would not otherwise have : the means of earning your livelihood and 
of cultivating your minds to become good citizens and useful mem- 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 133 

bers of our Commonwealth were furnished you by us, and in the bad 
use of your right to 3'our freedom you chose not to accept these 
benefits. This refusal on your part has led you to become offenders 
against the laws of the State, — corrupt politicians, vagrants, gam- 
blers, robbers, or murderers. The State can therefore no longer rec- 
ognize you as belonging to its members, and will have to treat you 
like criminals as you are, by inflicting the severest tasks of liaid labor 
upon you in industrial prisons, or if need be execute you, as the loyal 
bees destroy the drones in the hives. 

This is the reason why the organization of a public-school system 
is not only expedient, but a dut}^ which the State owes to its upgrow- 
ing citizens, and why it is therefore just to levy a general tax for its 
support. The people, who form and constitute a State and its gov- 
ernment, cannot realize the object which they have in view in that 
formation, and cannot maintain the government which they have 
constituted, unless every child in the Commonwealth is enabled to 
develop all those faculties without which it can never become a good 
citizen. Hence it is as proper to tax the people of the State at large 
for the erection and maintenance of free public-schools as it is to tax 
them for the erection and support of courts, penitentiaries, hospitals, 
and asylums. 

The other argument used in the objection to such a system of free 
public-schools, namely, that many parents desire their children to 
receive also religious instruction in schools, and that as the public 
schools cannot teach religion it is unjust to support them by public 
taxation, is still more groundless than the plea that a public-school 
sj^stem interferes with individual freedom. It is impossible that 
injustice should be worked by that system, so long as all children, 
no matter of what creed, have equally the privilege of attending 
them and learning all those branches of education regarding which 
there cannot be any conscientious dispute. The public schools, it is 
true, do not teach religion, but neither do they interpose any objec- 
tion to religious instruction. Every parent can have his or her child 
educated in matters of religion as well with as without the public- 
school system ; only not in the public schools, where religious teach- 
ing would bring Pagan,, Buddhist, Jew, Mohammedan, Brahmin, and 
the numerous sects of Christians into constant conflict. And what 
earthly reason can be advanced to show why children should be 
taught religion in the public schools, and not rather in other places 



134 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

especial!}' provided for tliat purpose? Why do not all parents who 
choose to educate their children in religion do so independently of 
the public schools, precisely as they now send them to special schools 
of music or painting? It is evident that no satisfactory reason can 
be assigned why religious instruction should not be given in special 
institutions established for that purpose by each sect or religion, par- 
ticularly as these institutions already exist in the different churches, 
which are, after all, the fittest places for teaching children those 
religious doctrines which they will be taught there also as they grow 
up to riper years. The proposition that religious instruction must 
be taught in common schools is therefore a mere frivolous pretext. 

But, say the sectarians, as we have already a number of common 
schools of our own, wherein the same educational subjects are 
taught as in the public schools, in addition to religion, is it not fair 
that our schools should receive their equitable proportion of the taxes 
which the State raises for the general purposes of public education ? 

The reply is very easy. Sectarian schools are private institutions, 
and not under the control of the State. The State has nothing to do 
with them. The State pa^'s for its own asylums and hospitals, for 
all the sick and poor, but not for the asylums and hospitals of either 
sect, — Jews, Chinese, Catholics, Mussulmen, or Protestants. In the 
same way the State pays for its schools for all, and not for private 
schools of any kind. If a Jewish, a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a 
Catholic congregation or individual choose to start schools or acade- 
mies, it is their own affair. It is the most unblushing kind of impu- 
dence to ask the State to pay or contribute for private schools for 
particular sects of religionists. 

But it is also worthy of attention to reflect, that if this proposition to 
divide the taxes raised for school purposes between the public schools 
and the sectarian schools should be adopted, the very object which 
sectarians who make that proposition have in view would be defeated. 
For if it were carried out, and if the State government were thus to 
raise taxes for the maintenance of the sectarian schools, it would 
certainly also have the right, duty, and power to supervise all the 
matters connected with those schools. But the governmental inter- 
ference is the very thing that the sectarians oppose. They therefore 
directly contradict themselves, and make it more apparent than ever 
that the arguments which they advance are mere pretences, and that 
their real object is to break up the public-school system altogether. 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 135 

The objection, which is also raised by some foolish or extravagant 
sectarians, that in our public schools we make use of school-books 
which reflect to a great extent the Protestant creed, and of song- 
books that contain some so-called Protestant hymns, is almost too 
childish to need refutation. Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, and un- 
believers in general, might make the same objection to the use of 
books containing the names of God and Christ ; and, carrying out 
the principle still fui'ther, a German might object to have the name 
of Napoleon mentioned, a Frenchman to allusions to Bismarck, and 
an American Northerner to a biography of Gen. Robert E. Lee. If 
that plea had any force, we might as well burn up our whole litera- 
ture ; anc\ no Christian child ought to be told of Socrates or Confu- 
cius, or the whole line of heathen gods, which Christians, however, 
are but too anxious to have their children taught, even before they 
can comprehend the God of their own religion. Is there a sensible 
man or woman among the Protestants who would object to their chil- 
dren singing the oratorios of the Catholic Haydn, or those magnificent 
masses of the Catholic Church, some of the grandest of which have 
been composed by Protestants? Is there a sound-minded Roman 
Catholic who feels it an insult to his religious convictions if his or 
her children learn the grand oratorios of the Protestant Handel, or 
the most marvellous of all works of that kind, the Mathceus Passion 
of the Protestant Sebastian Bach? What Protestant, again, does not 
listen with the same devotion as a Catholic to the Ave Maria, written, 
by a Protestant, Sir Walter Scott, and set to music by a Catholic,, 
Franz Schubert? If the grandest, and by far the most numerous 
productions of modern literature have Protestants for their authors^ 
should the futui'e generations, on that account, be kept in ignorance 
of them? Culture, to be thorough, must be universal, and hence 
every good "Reader " used in schools must contain selections from 
the best writings of the most cultured men ; from the writings of the 
Protestant Shakespeare, as well as those of the Catholic Calderon ; 
from the Puritan Milton and the Romish Dante ; from Kant and Aris- 
totle, from Bacon and Confucius. 

As this objection referring to the text-books and music-books used 
in the public schools has been raised chiefly by Catholics, it may not 
be improper in this connection to remind them that of all the libraries 
in the world, that of the Vatican is the most universal ; of all the art- 
galleries, that of the Vatican the most comprehensive. If, then, the 



136 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

popes themselves have thus not only authorized, but assisted in mak- 
ing collections of books wherein all creeds and religions are repre- 
sented, and have spent millions of dollars in the perfection of gal- 
leries wherein figures of the Virgin Mary and Venus, Christ and the 
Apollo, are exhibited with equal prominence, what possible scruples 
can a Catholic layman entertain to have his children brought up in 
such a manner that they may be able to appreciate all those treasures 
of his Church?' 

Supposing, however, that a State government were to adopt this 
sectarian scheme, how would it work financially? A general tax for 
school purposes would be raised, and the money obtained would have 
to be equally divided in proportion between all the schools of the 
community on which that tax was levied. Any private individual or 
any corporation might start a school or set of schools, and no matter 
how worthlessly they kept them they would be entitled to draw their 
pro rata of the general school-fund. A new and illimitable field of 
public plunder and corruption would thus be opened, and while the 
people would be robbed of their money, their children would be 
cheated out of a proper and sufficient education. 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



PART SECOND. 



037) 



PUBLIC I^TERCOMMUJSriCATIO]^^. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



Having shown. the duties of the government in regard to the pres- 
ervation of the physical health, strength, and activity, and the devel- 
opment of the intellectual, inspirational, and moral powers of its 
citizens, in order to prepare them for the fit and harmonious use of 
all their faculties of mind and body, I shall now specify the duties of 
the government in regard to the intercommunication of those citizens, 
whereby the exercise of their social and political functions is to be 
protected. 

That there are such duties should admit of no question. Under 
our own Declaration of Independence, it is the purpose of govern- 
ment to guarantee to every citizen life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. But no government can make this guarantee unless it has 
supreme coiitrol over all the means whereby to make it valid. 

These means are manifold, and, in order to make each separate one 
effective, should be organized into a complete and harmonious sys- 
tem of intercommunication. It is to be accounted one of the great 
deficiencies in the structure of our federative government that this 
organization of the various means of intercommunication was lost 
sight of, or held to be beyond the proper scope of government. 
Hence these means drifted into separate and unconnected channels. 

It is very instmctive to observe the admirable systems organized 
by men for the management of their private business ; and then no- 
tice the reckless, negligent manner in which our public affairs are 
administered, — the former manifesting economy, industry, integrity, 
prudence, and activity ; the latter, extravagance, fraud, idleness, 
and inattention. It is evident even to a casual observer that the 
conduct of our public administration in all matters of public inter- 

(139) 



140 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

communication between men in oui' republic has allowed them to pass 
under the control of selfish political schemers and corporate des- 
potisms. 

When a private citizen establishes a business of any kind, he is 
very careful to see that each part of the work is organized so as to 
fit closely into all other parts ; that each person employed shall have 
a specific portion of duties assigned him, and that the rules for the 
government of all these persons shall be fair and uniform in their 
application, clearly made known to each one, and strictly enforced. 
But in the administration of our government affairs all these funda- 
mental rules for the successful management of private business are 
ignored ; and even this great function of government itself, — to se- 
cure and promote the most reliable and economical means for uni- 
versal public intercoKomunication between all citizens, — has been 
surrendered and turned over to Federal and State corporations, at 
once oppressing the people and embarrassing the government. 

The Federal government has divided its sovereignty over the cur- 
rency of tlie country with national banks, in violation of the Con- 
stitution ; it has invited competition with the old coin-monopoly of 
foreign nations by impolitic discrimination in favor of gold for the 
payment of United States duties, thereby causing legal-tender notes 
to suffer a discount at the very time when treasury-demand notes 
receivable for duties were at par with coin ; it has granted away 
its supreme control over territorial and State highways to State and 
Federal railroad corporations created by Congress, and permits them 
to tax the travel and commerce on these interstate highways without 
any just limitations ; it has granted to telegraphic monopolies the 
right to control on their lines the public and private intercommuni- 
cation all over the country, and to levy such rates of tax therefor as 
the corporators choose, to the great injury of the citizens and the 
government, as if the members of Congress had owned in their own 
right the lands and moneys belonging to the people, with the power 
to donate them to banking, railway, or other corporations. 

Many of the State governments also have granted away portions 
of their sovereign powers and vast amounts of State bonds and 
moneys belonging to their citizens to like corporate railway monop- 
olies, which now arrogantly seek to control those State legislatures 
and judiciaries, as they do the Federal Con^-ess and the judiciary, by 
the corrupt use of their great money-power and infiuence. 



PUB1.IC INTERCOMMUNICATION. 141 

All these charters and gifts, fraudulently and corruptl}^ procured 
from the State and Federal legislatures, should be resumed as soon 
as practicable by our governments ; and if such corporations have 
acquired vested rights that cannot immediatel_y be divested other- 
wise, then the State and Federa,! legislatures should establish regu- 
lations and rates of charges for them, to prevent their gross extortions 
and outrageous mismanagement and the daily reckless destruction of 
human life ; and, as soon as practicable, their lands and railwaA's 
should be declared subject to condemnation for public use, their 
value assessed b}'' juries, and the assessments paid over to the owners, 
thus restoring the highwaj's to the people. 

It is a fundamental maxim, in the administration of a federative 
system of government like ours, that all the means whereby public 
intercommunication between the citizens of the several States and 
Territories is carried on, whether through a money medium, railway's, 
telegraphs, police, or official newspapers, etc., should be subject to 
the exclusive control and direction of the Federal and State govern- 
ments, according to their respective constitutional powers and juris- 
dictions, so as to secure to the citizens of each State and of the 
United States a perfect legal equality of rights, and prevent usury 
and extortion. 

All existing corporations in the country that interfere with or 
obstruct the harmonious, full, and just administration of the respec- 
tive State and Federal governments, established by their founders for 
the security and promotion of the common good and happiness of the 
people, should be abolished. 

All existing laws tending to exempt any particular person, or com- 
bination of persons, from taxes or duties, or to create any privileged 
classes, corporations, or associations in any State, should be repealed, 
and a graduated income-tax substituted. 

The Federal and State constitutions should be so amended that the 
respective legislatures should be prohibited from granting, leasing, 
or disposing of the whole or any portion of the sovereignty or fran- 
chises of any State ; and from granting, selling, leasing, or dispos- 
ing of any goods, rights, liens, lands, or things whatsoever, except 
upon public notice, under general laws. 

No village, city, township, county or State in the repubhc should 
have any power to issue, sell, or negotiate any interest-bearing bonds ; 



142 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

and the national government itself should be prohibited from issuing 
hereafter any interest-bearing bonds. 

In the management of our national finances, the supreme control 
having been vested by the Constitution in the Federal government, it 
is necessary for it to assume and exercise tliis control by enacting 
laws declaring what shall be the national money, to the exclusion of 
all other money, and make a sufficient quantity to redeem all bonds 
and pa}'' all debts of the republic, so as to create a circulation that 
wfll be ample for the development of industries and the requirements 
of trade, and at the same time free the nation from the oppressive 
burden of interest. 

By the adoption of this policy there will be but one kind of money 
in the country, secured for its conversion or redemption in every 
article offered for sale or export ; in all the lands, natural wealth, 
products, taxes, and duties of the entire nation, now possessing 
lai'ger, more available, and more valuable resources than any other 
in the world. 

The administration of our governments, State and Federal, has to 
a great extent ignored these general principles for the preservation 
of republican liberty and poUtical equality, by permitting the growth 
of a class legislation that is slowly but surely absorbing our common 
franchises and liberties by the creation of privileged classes, of 
gigantic railway, banking, navigation, and telegraphic corporations, 
who will at length possess themselves of all the valuable powers of 
the government, and inevitably reduce the people to a state of slavery, 
unless measures of reform are adopted before these despotisms are 
too firmly established to be overthrown. 

By adopting the amendments to our constitutions indicated in this 
chapter, and inaugurating an organization of our legislatures and 
judiciaries. State and Federal, on the principles sketched in the first 
part of this work, the people will become in reality the only source 
of political power in the republic, under wise, harmonious, and just 
systems of laws, and under a full repi'esentation of all individual 
citizens, from townships, villages, cities, and counties, in their 
primary capacities. 

The other great problem, how the rights of each State^ in a feder- 
ative system like ours, and the proper supremacy of the Federal 
government, can be secured so as to administer the laws and the 



PUBLIC INTERCOMMUNICATION. 143 

governments for the common good, without tending towards central- 
ization or disintegration, have also been examined in the first part of 
this book. 

II. 

The main purpose of this work is to show the defects in the admin- 
istration of our present systems of government, and to suggest rem- 
edies therefor. The most remarkable instances of maladministration 
in our Federal affairs have occurred during the last ten j^ears, some 
of which I now propose to notice by way of illustration. 

The passage of an act of Congress, in 1863, for the creation of the 
national banks was directly in conflict with the general principles 
above given as those that should govern the management of the 
national finances. 

In 1861 the government issued sixty million dollars treasury demand- 
notes, receivable for duties, so that they were equivalent to coin in 
the New York market during the war. In 1862 about two hundred 
million dollars in legal-tender notes were issued, receivable for all 
debts except duties. Notwithstanding the ridiculous inconsistency 
of making these legal tenders inferior to coin, and inviting, as it were, 
coin gambling and a decline in the value of the legal-tender currency, 
no serious depreciation of them occurred until the issue of large 
amounts of Federal bonds and the passage of the National-Bank Act, 
in the spring of 1863, to increase the currency. This new currency 
was to be issued by the national banks upon the basis of Federal 
bonds deposited in the United States treasuiy, to secure redemption 
in legal tenders. There was no valid reason for adopting this scheme 
to increase the circulation. The natural and reasonable course 
would have been to issue more legal-tender notes if they were needed. 

The national-bank expedient was infinitely worse in its effect upon 
our finances than a direct issue of one thousand million dollars of 
legal-tender notes would have been ; for how could any sane man have 
supposed that national-bank notes issued by the treasury upon Fed- 
eral bonds were better secured than legal-tender notes ? This national- 
bank issue was based upon the same national security, and was re- 
deemable in legal-tender notes ; but it was not a legal tender for debts, 
which made it an inferior currency. The whole commercial world 
regarded this scheme as a mere trick to bolster up the national 



144 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

bonds, and the immediate effect was greatly to injure and impair the 
public credit. 

It is marvellous how any honest man could have proposed the pas- 
sage of the National-Bank Act to sustain the public credit, when by 
its terms the government agreed to pay such banks, when organized, 
twenty million dollars in coin per year for lending three hundred and 
thirty-three and one-third million dollars of second-class govern- 
mental currency to the people at the highest rate of interest, for their 
own profit. No spendthrift heir ever sold his inheritance at more 
ruinous rates. Valuing the twenty million dollars in gold paid those 
banks as a bonus, at the currency value in June, 1863, and estimating 
the interest thereon, compounded up to June, 1873, the banks 
would have realized a profit out of the bonus alone of nearly double 
their total circulation, and upon the circulation itself a further 
profit now estimated at nearly two thousand million of dollars. 

These enormous amounts of money would have been saved to the 
people if the United States had issued the three hundred and thirty- 
three and one-third million dollars in legal-tender notes to meet war 
expenses in 1863, instead of chartering national banks to accomplish 
the same object in an indirect waj% whereby the national credit was 
directly injured just in proportion as that notorious scheme of finan- 
cial folly was manifestly unprofitable to the government ; and accord- 
ingly it required, in July, 1864, about two hundred and seventy-five 
dollars in currency to buy one hundred dollars in gold, while the 
legal- tender demand notes, receivable for duties, were at par with 
coin, as the common greenbacks would have been if receivable at 
the custom-houses of the United States. 

The creation of these great mone3'-monppolies, with their extrava- 
gant largesses from the government, emboldened shrewd and grasp- 
ing speculators to demand and obtain from Congress, soon afterwards, 
inestimably valuable railway charters for roads to the Pacific coast, 
and vast grants of public lands, for the private emolument of a few 
favored stockholders. 

These two schemes for using the sovei^eign powers of Congress to 
create corporations, to use the public highways, the public credit, 
and the public lands for priv,ate profit, are the most gigantic in their 
results of any recorded in history. The stockholders and managers 
of those corporations have probably realized in money and in lands 



PUBLIC INTERCOMMUNICATION. 145 

enormous values, estimated to be nearly double the whole national 
debt, and now control the legislation, the finances, and the internal 
commerce of the republic. 

III. 

There are other defects in the laws for the administration of our 
State and national governments which seriously impair the public 
intercommunication of our citizens, that should be remedied at once. 

We require a State and National police and registration system 
that shall be effective for the protection of our lives and propei-ty,, 
our political franchises, and our freedom from the improper interfer- 
ence of others. It is true that we have detective police systems in 
large cities, but they are wholly unable to accomplish t1rc desired 
results. The coming and going of persons to and from the republic,, 
and all parts of it, without any kind of registration, State or Federal^ 
is doubtless a very convenient arrangement for criminals, assassins,. 
house-burners, and others, who desire to prey upon citizens and 
remain unknown ; and it may appear to be an easy way for the citi- 
zens also, who will thus avoid the trouble of registration when they 
arrive at or depart from their residence, or other places in the republic ; 
but no plan of human construction can protect men in their " enjoy- 
ment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness " unless the citi- 
zens are willing to submit to the slight inconveniences arising from a 
complete practical system of police and registration. This much- 
needed reform may seem irksome at first, but the annual increase of 
our terrible record of crime teaches us, that if the criminal classes are 
not to rule us, instead of our being ruled b}?^ the law, we must render 
their existence and operations next to impossible by the inauguration 
of thorough police and registration systems, State and Federal. 

The numerous selfish combinations whereb}' railwa}'- and other 
monopolies unite to raise the rates of freight on produce and manu- 
factured articles, so that farmers, miners, and manufacturers are 
unable to transport them to market with any profit, demand State and 
Federal legislation for their suppression. 

I may here repeat, what I have more at length expounded in the 
first part of this work, that, together with the inauguration of the above 
reforms, the whole body of our State and Federal laws, civil, criminal, 
departmental, admiralty, military, naval, and interstate national, 

10 



146 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

• 

should be codifiea, as well as the State and Federal constitutions ; 
whereupon the whole common-law system would be abolished, with 
its feudal features, monarchical foundations, and its more than eight 
hundred years of judicial discretion, oppression, and conflicting 
cases, the published reports whereof have become so voluminous that 
no one can master them, and but few lawyers afford to buy them. 
Thus has arisen, in the course of the administration of justice under 
tlie common-law system in England and in our country, the suggestive 
proverb, " Thei'e is a glorious uncertainty in the law." The 
*' glory" can apply only to the lawyers and judges; the "uncer- 
tainty" is well known to the people, who continually suffer from it. 
There should not be any such inglorious ^ '■ uncertainty in the law," 
for it is, of all sciences and knowledge, the most important to the 
citizen, who is presumed to know it, and yet may be convicted of 
felony, though ever so innocent, if he does not know it. But who 
can know the law if it is uncertain? And how unjust it is to require 
obedience to and enforcement of laws that are uncertain or unknown ! 
and how terrible is the wrong when a court convicts a man of a crime 
for acts done that were not known at the time of their commission to 
be criminal! In abolishing the common law, the whole system of 
equity law should be buried with it, being based upon the subterfuge 
that equity is only to be resorted to when there is no remedy at com- 
mon law. Both these systems pei'petually increase litigation by rea- 
son of the doubts arising in majiy cases as to which side of the court 
a party must apply to for relief or redress. There is no occasion, 
in free States like ours, for the use or practice of the vexing subtle- 
ties, mysteries, technicalities, and absurdities of the English systems 
of common and equity la\^, which are eminently adapted to perpet- 
uate labor-slavery, pauperism, monopolies, loi'dly oppressors, and the 
feudal monarchy and aristocrac}^ of Great Britain, but not to promote 
the happiness of a free people. Moreover, the expenses of our law 
and equity S3^stem have become so onerous, by reason of its compli- 
cations and absurdities, that a thorough codification and simplification 
of the laws and practice is imperatively demanded. The laws can be 
made plain and simple, and easily understood, if the principles are 
logically codified and plainly stated in good English,, with all neces- 
sary forms of procedure, and made strictly applicable to the rights, 
duties, and obligations of all citizens, upon the common understand- 
ing and foundation of a perfect equality of rights, duties, and obliga- 



PUBLIC INTERCOMMUNICATION. 147 

tions. This was done in California in 1870^ and has proved a great 
blessing to the people of that State. 

We should place our whole system of Federal taxation upon a 
rational and economical basis, b}'^ removing all duties and imposts 
■whatsoever, and levy only one income-tax to support the government, 
that should be equitably graduated and bear ratably equal upon 
all citizens. The tariff system is so expensiN'e, oppressive, unequal, 
and changeable, so fertile a source of all grades of crime and corrup- 
tion, that as soon as our people become sufficiently instructed in their 
public duties and interests to establish a rational money-system, they 
will abolish all tariffs and declare free trade to be the fundamental 
principle of our commercial intercommunication. 

We should not permit Chinese labor-slaves to be introduced into 
the republic and sold by their masters, as they now are. We should 
not permit the importation of felons, professional beggars, stolen 
children, assassins, and vagrants, the dregs and wrecks of despotisms 
from various European and Asiatic countries, to our republic, whereby 
their decaying society is relieved from the terrible influence of such 
wretches by shipping them here, to corrupt and destroy our own. 
These and other like evils would be readily remedied by the estab- 
lishment of a State and Federal police and registration system, as 
herein proposed. 

Every foreigner who comes to settle in this country, and applies 
for admission to citizenship, should be required to produce before 
the court clear proofs, that he has abandoned his allegiance to all 
rulers, orders, castes, and directors whomsoever, of his former resi- 
dence and country, and all other foreign countries, before he can 
demand the right of full naturalization ; that he is not polygamous, 
leprous, or beastial ; and if, after the naturalization of any person, it 
shall appear that he still acknowledges or yields any such allegiance 
as above, proceedings should be instituted to annul the certificate, in 
any court having jurisdiction, and prosecute the offender for perjury. 

Many of the citizens of the United States are habitually avoiding 
the most important duties they owe to themselves and the State by 
neglecting to exercise their political functions at primary political 
meetings and as voters, thereby surrendering the elections to mere 
politicians, ward managers, ballot-box stuffers, and demagogues, and 
bringing the whole system of political management into contempt and 
ridicule. Laws cannot be enforced to compel citizens to vote, but if 



148 LIBERTY- AND LAW. 

no better method be discovered to avert this growing evil, it might be 
provided by law that all citizens neglecting to exercise the elective 
franchise for two consecutive congressional elections, without a good 
excuse, should forfeit their right to hold any office of honor, trust, or 
profit in the State or Federal government. Citizens should be admon- 
ished and warned that the exercise of the elective franchise, intelli- 
gently, without fear or favor, in a federative republic, is a sacred 
trust imposed upon them by their citizenship, and to be faithfully 
performed at all times when the laws require elections for officers to- 
administer the various functions of government. "The price of 
liberty is eternal vigilance." It is really a sort of petty treason to- 
the State to exhibit carelessness and negligence in the performance 
of our public duties as citizens. This is the curse of all our American 
politics and laws ; we are too careless and indifferent to devote time 
enough to examine into the seaworthiness of our ships of State and 
the manner of their navigation ; we stay away from primary meetings, 
from the polls, from the courts of justice, and from the halls of legis- 
lation, as if we could avoid or remedy the maladministration of our 
public affairs by hiding from them in a spirit of cowardly indiffer- 
ence. 

The establishment of polygamy in the Territoiy of Utah by the 
Mormon hierarchy, under a new theocratic despotism claimed to be 
formed for the lost tribes of Israel, and the influx of Asiatic popula- 
tions into the Pacific States of the republic, with polygamy estab- 
lished under their customs, demand a remedy, which seems to be 
unattainable unless the national Constitution is amended so as to 
invest the Federal government with power to enact laws to suppress 
this great evil. In that event, national laws should be enacted estab- 
lishing the monogamic system of marriage throughout the republic, 
and prohibiting polygamy in all its forms, thereby saving and preserv- 
ing the female sex from the most abject slavery conceivable, which, 
during all recorded time, has always debased them, body and soul,, 
under the dominion and curse of polygamy. 

We should, finally, establish by law a system of State and National 
newspaper publications, to give the people official information of the 
most authentic character, concerning the various administrations of 
our governments and branches of the public service, the new laws 
proposed to be made and the laws made, the governmental contracts, 
expenses, revenues, and losses, with a daily history of all the events 



PUBLIC INTERCOMMUNICATION. 149 

of importance transpiring in the world, without any editorial com- 
ments. These papers to be furnished free of charge to all house- 
holders, heads of families, teachers, office holders, army and navy 
officers, including subalterns of all grades, pensioners, ex-raembers 
of all descriptions of offices, and such other citizens as may be 
designated by law. Such newspapers to have the power to insert 
advertisements of all business, trade, commerce, etc., at such rates 
as to pay, if practicable, all the expenses of the publication. 

In the first part of this work I have considered the measures a 
government based upon representative republican principles ought to 
adopt to secure each citizen in the fit and hai-monious exercise of his 
functions as a phj'^sical member of the world of nature, and have 
■drawn the outlines of a system of schools, indicating my view of the 
measures necessary to aid and protect him in the proper exercise of 
liis faculties as a member of the world of intelligence ; in this second 
part I shall discuss the measures necessary to be adopted and en- 
forced by the State and Federal governments to secure all citizens in 
their commercial and public intercommunication from all the hinder- 
ances and obstructions of all forms of monopoly or despotism. 

No reforms demand speedier attention ; and should some of thenc 
be deemed novel, they have all a pressing claim upon the study and 
attention of the statesman and the citizen. The preservation of the 
liberties of the people of these States depends, in my own opinion 
iipon a full, thorough, and comprehensive understanding and prac- 
tical adoption of the plan proposed herein, or of a similar one in all 
of its main features. 

But something else must be done at the same time in an opposite 
•direction. There has been growing up of late years, in Europe as 
well as here, another species of despotism, which is equally destruc- 
tive of the just, equal rights of the people. This is known variously 
as Nihilism, Communism, and Socialism. It works in the dark, 
through secret societies, and seeks to make a propaganda by spurious 
promises of universal equality of all earthly possessions and enjoy- 
Toents. It would reduce all men to the same state of intellectual 
culture, the same condition of financial prosperity, and, indeed, to the 
same condition in every relation of life, — social, political, and do- 
mestic. This demand has, not unnaturally, sprung up in the minds 
of extreme fanatics and ignorant followers, from the almost universal 
despotism to which nearly all the nations of the world have been 



150 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

subjected by the few governing classes during neaiiy the whole period 
of man's history. It is an extreme reaction against an extreme evil, 
but it has at any rate no reason to exist in this republic, if the true 
principles of Liberty and Law can be established. I have treated this 
whole subject in a special chapter of this part of the book, under the 
heading, "Capital and Labor, or the Poor and the Rich," and have 
there shown how the despotism of the Communist and Nihilist must 
be abolished, as well as that of the corporations and other monop- 
olies. And this can be done only by the impartial rule of Law and 
Liberty, on a plan of government similar to that laid down in this 
book. 



MONEY. 151 



MOjS^EY. 
CHAPTEE I.' 

ORIGIN OF MONEY. 

In the most primitive condition of man each individual furnished 
himself his own necessities. But as men begin to associate together 
and live iji society, this condition changes, and each one seeks to 
become a specific worker in some direction, while the chosen rulers, 
teachers, etc., are engaged in no work at all directly productive of 
the necessities of life. 

Thus there arose a system of barter or exchange for the working 
men, and for the officials a system of pa3anent in kind, which grad- 
ually necessitated a S3^stem of tokens whei'eby to effect the inter- 
change. There being yet no State organization sufficiently developed 
to make any token — no matter how intrinsically valueless — gener- 
ally current by guaranteeing its permanent reception as such token 
for the value stated, the people natui'ally looked around for some 
substance which had great intrinsic value within small bulk. It was 
thus that gold and silver — sometimes also jewels and precious stones — 
became current ; so that money, being virtually under no control of 
the State, except so far as its coining was concerned when gold and 
silver began to be coined for convenience, became a power over the 
State within the State, and a continually growing source of monopolies,, 
that, in point of fact, took away from the poorer class all their rights 
and privileges by a system of most cunningly exercised brokering 
and commercial despotism. 



152 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

CHAPTEE n. 

INVENTION OF BANKING. 

Thus money-brokerage and exchange grew into a despotism more 
absolute than any other on earth, and has ever since retained this 
despotic power, which, wielded by men unscrupulous from the very 
nature of the case, has proved the greatest scourge of the human race. 
For gold and silver assumed a far greater significance than their own 
hitrinsic value warranted, the moment these metals became the gener- 
ally acknowledged medium of interchange among nations ; since that 
acknowledgment made them virtually representatives of all the inter- 
changeable commodities on earth, thereby increasing their value in 
proportion as this interchange increased. Thus, with the growth of 
trade, commerce, and manufactures, the monej^-power assumed enor- 
mous proportions, and under the agency of shrewd men could be 
handled with terrific effect. The histories of Carthage and Tyre, of 
all the great "free" commercial cities of the Old "World, of Phoe- 
nicia, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, are nothing but histories 
of the despotism of men and money-corporations that knew how to 
use skilfully this potent agency ; and in later times the same phe- 
nomena reappeared in the "free" cities of Northern Italy, Venice, 
Genoa, and Milan, where a few capitalists ruled with quite as severe 
a rod of tyranny as any emperor or king of history ; nay, often even 
braving the whole power of emperors and kings, as the Rothschilds 
are able to do in the present age. 

But, as Europe began to advance in civilization, all the gold and 
silver attainable were not sufficient, even at the fabulous value to 
which they had been raised, to carry on the necessary business of 
this new-grown commercial world, and it was the necessity to provide 
for this state of things which led men's minds gradually to a proper 
notion of the true nature of money, by inventing banking and ex- 
changes. Through this invention the commercial world was supplied 
with a vast accession to the amount of money current in gold and 
silver, an accession which stimulated and made possible the extraor- 
dinary commercial activity of that period, and the adventurous 
undertakings to which it gave rise. The discovery of America, and 



MONEY. 153 

the vast amounts of additional gold and silver or money thereby ob- 
tained, assisted still further to extend this pi'osperity in commerce, 
trade, and exchanges. 



CHAPTEE III. 

CKEATION OF MONEY OF ACCOUNT AND OF STATE DEBTS. 

But still the State refrained from interfering with this enormous 
power of the moneyed monopolies. Within the political States of 
Europe there were thus always two other despotisms besides that of 
the government itself : the hierarchical and the despotism of money ; 
and under the three the people were left little of their natural liber- 
ties and rights indeed. It seems strange that no State ever conceived 
the plan of taking that tremendous power of money out of the hands 
of the financiers by establishing a money of its own ; but even to-day 
the old state of things continues, in a measure, as it has been shaped 
by circumstances and innumerable contradictory individual theories 
and efforts. John Law, it is true, induced France to adopt a policy 
of national bank paper money ; but the attempt to give it a coin 
basis, joined with other schemes for private speculation, caused its 
failure in a sudden panic. Thus, for a long time, the private finan- 
ciers of Europe alone had the power to increase the suppl}^ of cur- 
rency by the banking system, using drafts and letters of credit as 
representatives of money at different points in the world ; the whole 
system depending, however, upon constant renewal and extension, 
and hence constituting those drafts and letters of credit, real money 
in all respects, or, as it is called, money of account. 

The modus operandi in which banks manage to effect this inter- 
change of mone}^ without using the "real" money supposed to be 
at the base of it, I cannot describe better than b}^ quoting from an 
article in a recent number of Blackwood's Magazine on "The Rate 
of Discount." After referring to the fact that Sir John Lubbock, 
in anal3'zing the nineteen millions of the receipts of the banking- 
house of Roberts & Co., of London, found that only three per 
cent of these receipts were in cash, the ninety-seven per cent being 



154 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

checks, drafts, and other means of exchange, the writer of that 
article says : — 

" The mystery of banking, if there is a mystery, will be unravelled 
b3^ discovering what these ninety-seven things are. What, then, are 
the}''? Cheques, bills, dividend-warrants, pieces of paper, which 
have debts inscribed on them, and empower a bank, if it chooses, 
to demand and receive the several sums of money mentioned on those 
papers. Palpably, then, on its receiving side, a bank is a collector 
of debts. These debts which it has to collect are its resources. 
These are what it has to pass on and lend to traders. These debts 
are paid to the bank, beyond doubt; but in what form? In money, 
the cash which the bank indisputably can demand? By no means. 
The bank does not ask for money, nor, as to these ninety-seven 
things, touch it. The mode of settling these debts is quite a differ- 
ent process. The banker, loliose aim is profit, finding that he has so 
many debts to collect, at once authorizes some borrowers on discount 
to sign fresh pieces of paper with sums of money inscribed on them, 
fresh cheques, and to buy goods with them, and he, the banker, un- 
dertakes to pay these cheques when presented. These two sets of 
paper — the cheques which the banker received to collect, and the 
cheques which he empowered his borrowers to draw upon him — meet 
at the clearing-house, and there cancel each other. The settlement 
of one set of debts is thus effected by the creation of a second. 
The final result at the bank — nay, the sole action of the bank — is a 
registry in its ledger of a debt which it owes to its depositor, and of 
a second, or counter-debt which its borrower owes it in turn. The 
resoui'ces have passed through the bank, have travelled from one set 
of men to another, and all that they have actually done at the bank 
in their passage through it is to cause entries to be made under 
various names. These enti'ies, this action of the bank, required no 
cash whatever. They were merely items of accounts, lines in the 
bank's books, recording, indeed, relations of debtor and creditor, — - 
still in themselves only figures. The cheques were not cash, and 
wei'e not paid in cash. All these paper orders to pay or receive 
money are nothing but title-deeds to money, — legal evidence of debt, 
valid and possessing worth only because, as evidence, they are able 
to persuade a court of law to send the sheriff to collect the specified 
money from the debtor ; but a title-deed and legal evidence able to 
obtain possession are not the property itself. Beyond doubt they 



MONEY. 155 

can procure money, if the banker asks for it; but he does not, and 
that is a fact, a positive, real fact, of the utmost significance for un- 
derstanding the nature of banking. Money demanded and retained 
would bring the banker no profit, whilst permission given to a bor- 
rower to draw a new cheque on him, enriches him with a charge for 
interest. Thus he collects the debt which the depositor gave him to 
receive through the agency of a third person, a borrower. Some- . 
thing clearly passes through the bank by means of these two entries, 
and that something is a power of buying goods in the shops and 
markets. This purchasing power is what the banker transfers on to 
the borrower : its nature and action we must now proceed to investi- 
gate. 

" We must return to the debts sent in for collection, — the cheques 
and other paper orders to receive money paid into the bank. How 
dothe}^ originate? They are all at their origin, omitting subsequent 
transfers after they have reached the bank, the children of the sales 
of goods. Let us appeal to the actual events of commercial life, to 
the buying and selling effected by means of banking. A farmer 
sells to a miller ricks of wheat of the value of £1,000. He is paid 
with* a cheque, which he deposits with his banker ; but of the proceeds 
of the sale he needs only £400 for immediate purchases and pay- 
ments ; the remaining £600 he will not require, say, for three months. 
These facts we must suppose the banker to know; so he at once 
infers that of the £1,000 he has to collect, £400 will be needed to 
face the cheques drawn by the farmer ; the other £600 are at his dis- 
posal for three months. He may, if he pleases, collect the whole 
sum in coin, and store up the unneeded portion in his vaults ; but he 
does not, for what profit would he then get out of banking? That 
would be to convert himself into a mere warehouseman. He seeks a 
borrower ; he finds an iron-merchant in search of means, and he lends 
him £600 for three months, on the discounting of a bill. The mer- 
chant buys iron, pays for it with a cheque, and all the three cheques 
meet at the clearing-house, — the first for £1,000, the second for 
£400, and the third for £600, — and there clear each other. The 
transaction is completed. The banker, on the settlement at the cleai-- 
ing-house, has to pay as much as he received, and no money passes. 
The farmer has parted with his wheat, which has been exchanged, 
partly for some goods which he has bought for his own use, partly 
for iron. He has become a creditor of the bank for £600, and the 



156 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

merchant a debtor for the same sum. The grand final result is, that 
goods have been exchanged for goods ; and that is the whole of the 
matter. The banking has been mere agency, — absolutely nothing 
more. The banker, manifestly, in all this has been simply a broker, 
an intermediate agent, and nothing more, — a man who bi'ings two 
other men together, a farmer who wants to lend wheat, and an iron- 
. merchant who wants to borrow iron." 

In another place he expresses the modus operandi still more con- 
cisely, as follows : — 

"By the simple, but effective contrivance of a bill acknowledging 
a debt and pledging repayment at a deferred day, the trader goes 
to work with means which are not his own. The large manufacturer 
buj'^s his cotton or wool with bills, and when they are due he meets 
them by the help of another set of bills, for which he has in turn 
sold his merchandise. These — the bills he has received on the sale of 
his goods — he gets discounted at a bank, and a new round of opera- 
tions commences. So it is with the merchant. He sells a cargo at 
Calcutta, and is paid with bills. Without the assistance of a bank 
he must have waited till the bills were paid before he could have 
gone on with his trade. A bank takes — that is, buys — his bills, 
and furnishes him with the means of continuing his business." 

After this mode of creating an artificial money by the banking sys- 
tem -to an enormous extent had been developed to a considerable 
degree in every part of Europe by private individuals (the Jews 
carrying on the greater part of the banking business during the Mid- 
dle Ages), the governments finally bethought themselves that they 
also might take advantage of the banking system. This became all 
the more necessar}'- as their expenses for maintaining luxurious courts 
and standing armies increased in rapid proportion. But instead of 
issuing letters of credit they issued bonds, and with the beginning of 
the Napoleonic wars this addition of money values flooded Europe in 
a wonderful way. For these State bonds are in reality also nothing 
but money, their improvement on the letters of credit or paper money 
lying in the fact that they bear interest. This improvement is, how- 
ever, a one-sided one altogether, being in favor of the capitalist and 
against the tax-pa3'ers of the State, and has been adopted only from 
supposed necessity, as a compromise, inducement, and bribe given to 
the capitalist to recognize these bonds as money. 

To exhibit the way in which money values hav.e in this manner 



MONEY. 



157 



been added to the representative wealth of the world, let us consider 
the following table of the comparative debts, in pounds sterling, of 
twenty-six governments in 1862 and 1872 : — 



18: 



1872. 



Increase. 



Argentine Republic. . 

Austria 

Belgium 

Bolivia 

Brazil ....... 

Chili 

Costa Rica 

Danubian Principalities 

Denmark 

Egypt 

Trance 

Germany 

Guatemala 

Honduras 

Italy 

Japan 

Mexico 

Paraguay 

Peru 

Portugal 

Russia 

Spain 

Sweden 

Turkey 

United States .... 

Uruguay 

Venezuela 

Total 



£3, 

250. 

26, 



000,000 
000,000 
■200,000 

i,'ooo,o66 

1,800,000 



11, 

3, 

396: 

6o: 



,000,000 
,300,000 
000.000 
,000,000 
300,000 



100,000,000 

2o,bbb,66o 



5, 

33. 

230, 

150, 

3, 

23: 

75: 
4: 
a: 



500,000 
000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 
000,000 
,000,000 
,000,000 



£17,500,000 

300.000,000 

30,000,000 

2,000,000 

60,000,000 

7,500,000 

3,400,000 

5,000,000 

12,800,000 

45,000,000 

970,000,000 

120,000,000 

600,000 

5,000,000 

275,000,000 

1,000.000 

60,000,000 

3,000 000 

37,000.000 

65,000,000 

350,000,000 

306,000,000 

6,000,000 

130,000,000 

470,000,000 

6,000,000 

8,000,000 



£]4,500,000' 

50,000,000 

3,800,000 

2,000,000 

55,000,000 

4,700,000 

3.400,000 

5,000.000 

1,800,000 

41.700,000 

574,000,000 

60,000,000 

300,000 

5,000,000 

175,000,000 

1,000,000 

40,000,000 

3,000,000 

31,500,000 

32.00!),000 

120,000,000 

156 000,000 

3,000,000 

107,000,000 

395,000,000 

2,000,000 

3.000,000 



£1,493,109,000 



£3,375,800,000 



£1,882,700,000 



A very noticeable fact in this list is, that the younger States of the 
world have so quickly perceived the advantages of this system of 
creating money-credits, and followed so successfully in the tracks of 
their elders. The Argentine Republic increases her money-credits 
in ten years from $15,000,000 to $87,000,000, Bolivia from a mere 
nominal amount to $10,000,000, Brazil from $25,000,000 to $300,- 
000,000, and Egypt from $16,500,000 to $225,000,000. 

All in all, it appears from the above table that, within ten years, 
twenty-six governments of the world have increased the amount of 
money-bonds circulating, to the extent of $9,413,000,000; England 
meanwhile remaining stationary in her issue, and Holland alone reduc- 
ing her debt or outstanding funds some $35,000,000. 

I may add, that since 1872 some $7,500,000,000 more have been 
added to the national debts, most of which, seventy-five hundred mil- 
lions., has been spent for a purely destructive object — war. Withia 
barely tlu-ee centuries, therefore, the above countries have issued 
bonds to the almost incredible sum of twenty-four thousand three 



158 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

hundred and seventy-nine million dollars ($24,379,000,000) ; and 
most of this money has been used for the purpose of carrying on 
wars and maintaining standing armies. On that immense sum the 
people of those countries have to pay steadily increasing interest. 
This suggests two questions. The first: Is it a wonder that there is 
so much povert}^ and suffering in those countries? and the second: 
Since those bonds pass and are constantly used as money in all com- 
mercial and financial transactions, and since, therefore, that amount 
of money must be necessary to supply the wants of the people, w^hy 
not substitute for those interest-bearing bonds non-interest-bearing 
national legal-tender notes, which would serve the same purpose and 
relieve the people of the immense burden of taxation resulting from 
the interest that, under the bond sj^stem, must be paid on those 
debts ? 

But these yiational debts do not constitute the only interest-bearing 
bonds that oppress the people. Let us take our own country as an 
instance : The census of 1870 showed that the aggregate indebted- 
ness of our cities and towns at that time was $328,000,000. The 
statistics for 1875 of thirty-two cities alone show that their bonded 
indebtedness was then $525,632,000, which was an increase of 160 
per cent since 1870, or at the rate of 32 per cent a year. The in- 
crease in Ohio cities had been for those five years 260 per cent, in 
Massachusetts cities 130 per cent, and in New York cities 119 per 
cent. Taking 70 per cent as the average increase for the five years, 
and making allowance for the sinking-funds, it is estimated that the 
aggregate indebtedness of cities and towns in 1875 was $700,000,000. 
The debts of the States ($352,800,000) and counties ($187,500,000) 
in 1870 amounted to $540,300,000. If these debts also increased at 
the rate of 70 per cent, the}'^ must have amounted in 1875 to 
$918,500,000, and the total indebtedness of cities, towns, counties, 
and States at that time must have been $1,618,500,000, or about $40 
2)er capita for the entire population. 

(I ma}^ mention, by the way, that there is onl}^ one State — West 
Virginia — which wisely forbids by constitutional provision the con- 
traction of a State debt.) 

It will be seen, from the above figures, that the debts of our cities 
and towns are about twice the amount of our State debts; and to 
bring the matter still closer home, let it be understood that those 
), 000, 000 municipal debts rest upon propert}^ the assessed value 



MONEY. 



159 



of which is $6,175,082,158, — that is, the property of those cities is 
mortgaged for one-tenth of its A^ahie ; tliat the annual taxation of 
those cities and towns is $112,711,275, of which about one-half is for 
interest on those debts ; and that the burden of this has to be borne 
by a population of 8,576,249. How this operates on each individual 
is shown b}- the following table : — 



Cities. 


Taxation. 


Popula- 
tion. 


Taxation 
per head. 




$10,000,000 
33,000,000 
3.000,000 
1,700,000 
15,000,000 
'6,100,000 
1,800,000 
4,100,000 
4,500,000 


341,109 
1,249,868 
260,000 
124,929 
860,000 
400,000 
203,439 
300,315 
400,000 


.?29 00 
27 50 
20 50 


New York 


Xcwark 


17 00 


Philadelphia 

Chicago 


15 25 
15 00 


!New Orleans 


15 00 




14 50 


St. Louis 


11 11 



Compared with this exhibit of municipal wastefulness, our State 
governments are models of economy. For the great State of New 
York taxes its citizens only two dollars per head ; wasteful Massa- 
chusetts only four dollars per head ; Illinois onlv one dollar and ten 
cents per head, and Missouri only one dollar per head. And the 
worst of it is, that these debts are constantl}^ increasing. Within ten 
years, city debts liave increased two hundred per cent, taxes eight}'- 
three per cent, and populations only thirt3'-three per cent. These 
are frightful figures, and there is only one remed}'' : to constitution- 
ally prohibit all States, counties, cities, and towns fi-om contracting 
any debt whatever. 

It ma}^ be interesting, in this connection, to look over a few tables 
which illustrate the facility and recklessness with which governments 
and cities contract these enormous burdens to be borne by the people, 
called public debts : — 



The national debt of England (loan fi'om bankers) was in 1689 
William of Orano'e increased it 



But paid off 



£064,263 

20,851,479 

£21,515,742 
5,121,040 



Leaving to Queen Anne's administration £16,394,702 

Who contracted further debts of 35,750,661 



Leaving British debt in 1713, at the peace of Utrecht . . . £52,145,363 

Then George I. came in, and with him the S3'stem of funding the 
public debt. Under this sj'stem, in 1748, at the peace of Aix-la- 



160 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

Chapelle, the debt had already risen to £79,293,713 ; and at the close 
of the Seven Years' War, which brought no advantage to England, in 
1763, had nearly doubled, being then £138,865,430. The American 
war increased it still further ; so that at the peace of Versailles, — 

In 1783, it had again nearly doubled, reaching the enormous 

figure of £249,851,628. 

During the next ten years it was reduced 5,732,993' 

Leaving it at the commencement of the French revolution- 
ary war £244,118,635 

Nine years later it was more than double that amount, being then, 
in 1802, £520,207,101. The wars against Napoleon, which also did 
England no good, left the national debt in 1814, at the emperor's 
first expulsion, £742, 115,067. His second expulsion required another 
loan of £45,000,000, and increased the national debt to that extent.. 
It is about the same amount now, — that is, £780,000,000. The inter- 
esting question here is, whether the people of England would have- 
voted these loans, through Parliament, if the additional debt, incurred; 
from time to time, had been levied upon them directly, and if they 
had not been deluded by the supposition that posterity would have to. 
pay the debt, and that they would only have to pay the annual intei*- 
est on it? As Great Britain reaped no real immediate benefit from 
those wars, and was not compelled to undertake them in self-defence,, 
I am inclined to believe that the people would have voted down 
each loan almost unanimously, if they had been told in dry figures 
that their taxes, which in 1793 amounted to only £17,170,400, would 
within twenty-two j'ears, in 1815, at the close of the wars against 
France, amount to four times that amount, — i.e., £70,403,448 a 
year. Great Britain, however, has done one wise thing in the issue 
of those bonds, in that it has made them irredeemable, only the 
interest being payable. 

We have another illustration, however, closer at hand, in the finan- 
cial experience of the city of New York. 

In 1830 the public debt of that city amounted to about $900,000, 
at which figure it stood, with small fluctuations, until 1836, when it 
was inci'eased to $1,282,103.58. Seeing how easy it was to increase 
its public debt, the city, in the next year, nearly doubled it, and in the 
following year again, and then again, so that in 1839 it had already 
reached the respectable amount of $7,126,790. This was still further 



MONEY. 161 

increased to $13,316,292.86 in 1842, at which figure the debt re- 
mained stationary for full ten years. 

During the decade 1852-1862 it was swelled to $21,695,506.88. 
Then came six years of still greater extravagance, increasing the debt 
from $14,000,000 to $35,983,647 in 1868. One year more, and it was 
$47,691,840. Another year, and $25,000,000 more had been bor- 
rowed, making the debt $72,373,552 in 1870. Since then it has risen 
m the same enormous proportion. 

In 1871 it was $88,369,386 

In 1872 it was 95,582,153 

In 1873 it was 106,363,471 

In 1874 it was . 114,979,970 

Thus, in nine j^ears — from 1865 to 1874 — the public debt of the 
city of New York has increased from $35,000,000 to $114,000,000. 
Of course the rate of taxation has increased correspondingly, to. wit : 
From $2.51 in 1830 to $4.33 in 1840; from $4.33 in 1840 to $6.27 
in 1850; from $6.27 in 1850 to $11.99 in 1860; from $11.99 in 1860 
to $25.11 in 1870; from $25.11 in 1870 to $32.31 in 1874, on each 
inhabitant of New York, man, woman, and child. The amount of 
debt to each inhabitant, which in 1830 was only $3.82, has now 
reached the enormous amount of $114.98. 

Paradoxical as it may seem, therefore, this increase of the public 
indebtedness, and this alone, explains the increase in the wealth of 
almost all the nations of the world. The wealth of the United States, 
for instance, which was about $7,000,000,000 in 1850, rose to 
$16,000,000,000 in 1860; then, in the next decade, amidst a war 
which destroyed $9,000,000,000 of property, it rose to the enormous 
sum of $30,000,000,000, and could never have assumed these vast 
proportions had not the issue of paper money and bonds furnished 
the necessary circulating medium. For money credits can be quite 
as readily transferred from one place to another in the shape of 
bonds as in the shape of notes ; and hence every bond serves as a 
means of exchange between the various cities of the country, and in 
another way, too, between this country and foreign countries. The 
issue of bonds by any State in the world in this way increases by so 
much the circulation of world-monej', and contributes to the wealth 
of all nations using them as exchange. 

11 



162 LIBEETY AND LAW. 

If Great Britain nas accumulated more wealth since the beginning 
of this century than she had during all the eighteen hundred years 
previous, the explanation can be seen in the above table of debts ; 
the benefit of which Great Britain has enjoyed more than other na- 
tions in proportion as she has besa the chief negotiator of most of 
them, and has been able to use successfully, during all the Napo- 
leonic wars, the national currency of the Bank of England during the 
long suspension of specie payments occasioned by those wars. "This 
absolute and irredeemable money has given her a monetary suprem- 
acy over all the nations of the world. 

Again, the remarkable prosperity which all Europe, and partic- 
ularly France, enjoyed since the close of the frightful Franco-Ger- 
man war, when every one expected that France would be as finan- 
cially ruined as she seemed to be politically, is properly understood 
only by looking upon the issues of the bonds, or rentes, to make up 
the five milliard loan wherewith to pa}^ the German indemnity, as 
so much circulating wealth added in the short space of two years 
to the money of Western Europe. 

Nothing is, therefore, more true than the seeming financial paradox, 
that the contracting of debts increases the circulating exchange- 
wealth of the world ; and this paradox must necessarily remain true 
until all the nations of the world have swept away their debts by 
substituting paper money in their place, and issuing enough of it for 
the requirements of their States. The paradox will then cease to be 
one by being shaped into its rational formula: that the issue of the 
necessary amount of money needed by a State is not in the nature 
of a debt, but the prerogative inherent in the sovereignty of the 
State to issue the representative of the entire wealth of the State, if 
necessary, in a circulating medium. 

Nothing else, moreover, explains the extraordinary fact, that the 
discovery of gold in California and Austi'alia did not produce a 
steady decline in the price of gold, and that the average price of 
wheat is to-day nearly the same as it was in 1850, when it was about 
one dollar. What a great outcry was then raised by M. Michel 
Chevalier of France, and De Quincey in England, about the ruin im- 
pending over the world by reason of the fall in the price of gold it 
was supposed would necessarily follow those discoveries. If gold 
had then been and had continued to be the only world-money, their 



MONEY. 163 

prophecies might have been in part fulfilled. But the fact is, that 
gold had ceased to be the. only world-money long before then, the 
infinitely greater part of that money being made of paper, — in the 
shape of checks, drafts, bonds, etc., — as I have shown. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CUESE OE INTEEEST. 

While thus in one respect the issue of these bonds has been a bless- 
ing to the people, by furnishing them the needed means of exchange 
values, in another way it has been a curse ; and as curses all grow 
with age, so the weight of this curse is to be felt only in the future 
in all its crushing power. This curse is the interest attached to the 
bonds, — the inevitable coupon, — for which the State that issues the 
bond gets nothing, and which, with its accumulating force of com- 
pound interest, must necessarily ruin ever}^ State ultimately, or force 
it into bankruptcy. 

This curse is the result of cowardice ; the State being afraid to 
assume the same power which some few banking-houses, not within 
one million times so wealthy as the State, are superstitiously sup- 
posed to possess, of converting their issues of paper into money, 
which is the real philosopher's stone. Like all other superstitions, 
this one will have to be swept away. 

The absurd fact is, that a sovereign State, finding, say, one hundred 
million more of dollars necessary for its circulation, did not dare to 
meet the exigency by simply making the amount of money needed, 
but in a roundabout sort of way issued some paper money, called 
bonds, and going to capitalists, say one or two large bankers, like 
the Rothschilds, or Jay Cooke & Co., begged them to be pleased to' 
recognize this paper money as good current money ; which these 
bankers agreed to do upon payment of a large immediate discount 
and a continuous future semi- annuity, called interest, which is the 
'tribute paid these money-kings. 

The State having agreed to the terms of this contract, the capital- 
ists put the profits into their pockets, and told the people of the State 



164 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

that those paper moneys, or bonds, were good current money ; and 
thus, havhig made manifest their supreme power over their own sov- 
ereign State, looked around for some other power to subdue in the 
same manner, by compelliHg it to pay interest tribute. 

It is apparent, that when a whole people, constituting a State, puts 
such an immense monopoly into the hands of a few capitalists, either 
at home or abroad, it must be ruinous to their liberties and welfare, 
and that the accumulation of interest compounded in such manner 
must eventually swallow up the whole property and values of the 
State. Why should these capitalists have "the power to say what is- 
money ? Why should not the people themselves, in their organic law, 
decide upon this matter, and agree among themselves what they all 
intend to receive as money, thus all pledging to each one the security 
of the money and the permanency of its value forever? The main 
objection made is this : that so long as each State of the world i& 
an absolutely separate organization, the paper money of one State 
can never become the legal currency of any other State, and that 
gold and silver must therefore always remain the only possible world- 
money. To what extent this objection is valid, and how it is to be 
overcome, will be considered hereafter. 

There is, however, still another, and even more disastrous view to 
be taken of this issuing of interest-bearing bonds by a State. It is 
virtually the mortgaging by the State, as a political body, of all the 
rights, liberties, wealth, and franchises of its citizens to foreign bond- 
holders ; and to what extent this can be carried was very effectively 
shown in the case of Mexico, when the foreign bondholders, with their 
claims upon the State of over eighty-three millions of dollars, suc- 
ceeded in inducing their European governments to impose a foreign 
emperor upon the Mexican people, plunging them into those fatal 
wars that were to end in the tragic death of Maximilian. 

The same financial fraud is now transpiring under our eyes. The 
khedive of Egypt was lately compelled to become a fugitive, not 
because he had too many wives for European conscience, but because 
he owed too many overdue bonded debts to agree with European 
conscience ; and his brother of Turkey is gently following his exam- 
ple toward a bankruptcy which will cause the dismemberment of the 
empire. 

No State government should have the power to sell its citizens into 



MONEY. 165 

possible foreign slavery, thus laying a mine under the political fabric 
that may at any moment shatter it into fragments. The issue of bonds 
iDearing interest is the exercise of such power. It puts shackles on a 
nation even more effectually than a mortgage does on the individual 
who hypothecates his farm. 

The issue of paper money, on the contrary, has no such enslaving 
power. It does not pretend to be convertible into gold, silver, copper, 
lead, wheat, cotton, or other articles of merchandise, but is a legal 
tender, and the only legal tender in the State that issues it. If an 
international clearing-house be established, the failure of any State 
at any time to make good its balance in the values agreed upon 
between the several nations composing the clearing-house would not 
result in war, but simply in the expulsion of such nation from the 
■clearing-house, thereby virtually excluding it from all foreign trade 
and commerce until it restored its credit by proper measures. 

Still more : tlie issue of paper money by any federation of States 
would constitute the^ strongest bond of union for its citizens. The most 
vital interests of every one would be enlisted in maintaining the 
government and to prevent disintegration. Our late civil war would 
have been impossible if a national paper currency had made the 
fortune and prosperity of every citizen dependent upon, the main- 
tenance of the common government and federation. 

And in a similar way the further extension of such a system of 
money to all the civilized nations of the earth, and the establishment 
by them of an international clearing-house, would unite all those 
different States together by the closest possible tie, and contribute 
more than any other measure to prevent the occurrence of war. 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE TRUE NATUEE OF MONEY. 

The true theory of money is, therefore, this : Money is a necessary 
means of intercommunication between all the citizens of a State. To 
leave the control of such intercommunication to the freaks of chance 
as to how much gold and silver may be found or not, or to put it 



166 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

within the power of any body of men conspiring together for such 
control, is in the latter case to endanger the liberties of all citizens, 
and in the former to leave their welfare exposed to the mercy of the 
elements of nature. Hence it becomes the duty of the State to take 
the matter altogether and exclusively under its own control, to deter- 
mine what shall be money, and to provide it at all times in sufficient 
quantities to meet the necessities of the people, increasing the quantity 
in proportion as the growth of the trade, commerce, and products 
of the State require it. In this one proposition lies concealed the 
philosopher's stone, ages have exerted their best efforts to discover. 

The question is, how much money should be issued? The whole 
amount of money circulating in a State represents the whole inter- 
changeable commodities within the State ; hence it is in one way 
altogether the same how much or how little money the first issue 
is, that issue gaining its standard of value not from its convertibility 
into coin, but from its convertibility into the purchasable products 
of the State. But as gold and silver, with their divisions into dollars 
and cents, have once been adopted as a standai'd of value, it is as 
well to retain that standard ; and hence a well-organized State should 
issue in tokens of the least possible intrinsic value — say paper 
tokens — such an amount of dollars and cents as would represent, at 
the adopted standard, all the interchangeable commodities of the 
State ; and increase this sum in proportion to the increase of the 
commerce, manufactures, and other enterprises and riches of the 
State, so that money should never be scarce, but elastically adapt 
itself to every change in the demand and supply. 

The amount needed at first for circulation, as well as the successive 
additions required, can be determined with ease by a proper system 
of statistics, which for that purpose ought to be gathered at least 
once in each year, and can be for many years admirablj^ regulated 
by calling in the outstanding interest-bearing bonds, and effecting 
those internal improvements of our rivers, railroads, canals, etc., of 
which I have elsewhere given an outline. Thus the people will be 
at all times supplied with money suflicient to meet their wants and 
circumstances, as they ought to be furnished ; since money is as nec- 
essar}^ to them as the air they breathe, and must be furnished, them 
in larger proportions as they grow and require more for their dailj'- 
use ; and they would be relieved of a burdensome tax called interest. 



MONEY. 167 

which, in its usual compound character, is ultimately certain to im- 
poverish the State. 

In other words, money must be made a blessing to the people, and 
not remain tlie means whereby a few place shacldes on the many, and 
establish the most oppressive and crushing of all despotisms, which 
alwaj^s falls with double force upon the laborers and producers in 
the State- 
It has been made an objection to such money, — which, from the 
very nature of the case stated, must be of a substance that has no 
intrinsic value, — that it is merely an issue of rags. Indeed, our 
present legal-tender greenback has again and again been ridiculed as 
rag-money. Unquestionably our greenbacks are made out of rags. 
But so are other very valuable things, — things that even the gold men 
respect very highly. What is our flag? .Aiso a rag! Of what are 
our State and Federal constitutions made? Not of gold or silver, but 
of rags ! Yes, they are actually printed on paper, made of rags ! the 
same constitutions that have been the admiration of the w(jrld and 
the pride of every American for nearly a century, and will remain 
so, I hope, until the end of the world. What are our Bibles, prayer- 
books, laws, histories, and literature made of? Rags! What are the 
works of Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Scott, 
and Shelley? All rags. But is any gold man so fanatical as to wish 
the destruction of these rags? Is one of them so reckless as to 
declare the Constitution and laws of the United States invalid, 
because they are printed on "rag paper," even as our greenbacks 
are? Would those great works be of more value if printed on gold? 
Does not their whole value arise from the stamp of genius, as our 
paper money derives its whole value from the imprint of the govern- 
ment? 

During the rebellion there were men who spoke of our flag as the 
"Federal rag." Who dares now to trail it in the dust or trample 
upon it? Not even the gold men, who did their best to dishonor tli;it 
flag in the late war, to increase their coin premiums. Do they know 
what that "rag flag" represents? The whole sovereignty and 
power of the American people. What does the '^ rag money" rep- 
resent? The sovereignty, honor, credit, and solvency of the Amer- 
ican people; and whoever insults it, equally insults the "rag flag." 
The declaration of emancipation, also a mere piece of paper, liberated 



168 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

slaves valued at $4,000,000,000 by their man-bu^nng and selling 
masters, — and by what virtue ? Because it I'epresented the sover- 
eignty and power of the American people ! Would it have been more 
effective if engraved on gold plates? 

But the coin-worshippers themselves are beginning to advocate a 
money system which is essentiall}' based upon the principle that 
underlies my paper-money system. I allude to that portion of them 
who advocate an unlimited silver-money issue. 

I will explain this ; first, however, premising the following facts 
regarding the coins of the United States, taken from a work on the 
subject by Judge Warwick Mai'tin. These coins are as follows: — 

First. The one-cent bronze coin, under the law of 1864, is com- 
posed of ninety-five per cent pure copper and five per cent tin and 
zinc. A pound avoirdupois of this metal costs twenty-five cents. The 
pound is coined one hundred and sixty cents, the legal value of 
which is $1.60. The commercial value of the metal is twenty-five 
cents, wjiich, deducted from $1.60, leaves $1.35 as the difference 
created solely by law. This money is now legal tender to the extent 
of twenty-five cents in one payment, but is gladly received at par to 
almost any amount. The same difference will be found in the two- 
cent piece created by the same law. 

Second. The five-cent nickel piece, created by the law of 1866, of 
which there are now $5,000,000 in circulation, is composed of seventy- 
five per cent copper and twenty-five per cent nickel. A pound avoir- 
<Uipois of this metal will coin one hundred of these pieces, the legal 
value of which is $5. The pound of metal costs seventy cents, — a 
difference between the commercial value of the metal and the leo-al 
value of the coin of $4.30 in favor of the legal value. 

Third. Subsidiar}' silver coins under the law of 1853 were a small 
fraction over seven per cent light. The commercial value of the 
metal in this coin would be seven per cent discount for full legal- 
tender silver coins ; but up to $5, for which this coin is made by law 
leg;il tender, the monej^ is equal to gold in the United States ; and it 
is paid out by the government in sums of $100 for gold coin at par. 
Above $5 it is bul^on, seven per cent light weight, in the hands of 
the people. 

Fourth. The subsidiary coins under the law of 1873 are made to 
correspond with the trade dollar of 420 grains, and, compared with it, 



MONEY. 169 

are some eight and a half pei' cent hght, and with the trade dollar 
are legal tender for $5 only. Two of these half-dollars contain 385.8 
grains standard silver, 34.2 grains less than the trade dollar. The 
commercial value of the two half-dollars is eight and a half per cent 
less than the dollar ; but the legal value of the two halves and of the 
dollar is the same, both being legal tender for $5 only. 

And here let me ask, incidentally, of coin- worshippers generally : 
What becomes of your theory of the intrinsic value of money, if you 
see no objection to coining $1.60 worth of cents out of a pound of 
copper, the "intrinsic value" of which is only twenty-five cents; to 
coining $5 worth of •' nickels " out of one pound of nickel metal, the 
"intrinsic value" whereof is only seventy cents? If there is no 
objection, why should objection be raised against paper monqy on 
that score, since it has also unquestionably a certain "intrinsic" 
value, — the paper, cost of engraving, etc., — and since the amount 
of the intrinsic value clearly counts for nothing, so far as the copper 
and nickel coins are concerned? This one fact alone overthrows the 
whole "intrinsic value" theory. 

Another point in this connection : Senator Sherman, in a speech 
delivered in the United States Senate, after stating the purport of our 
legal tenders to be as follows: "The UNITED STATES promises 
to pay the bearer ONE DOLLAR," proceeds: — 

This note is a promise to pay one dollar. Tlie legal effect of this note has 
been announced by the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, the higliest and final judicial authority in our government. 
Thus, then, it is settled that this note is not a dollar, but a debt due, — a 
promise to pay a dollar in gold coin. Congress may define the weight and 
fineness of a dollar, and it has done so by providing a gold coin weighing 
25.8 grains of standard gold 0.9 fine. The promise is specific and exact, and 
its nature is fixed by the law and announced by the court. 

Senator Sherman admits, therefore, that Congress may define the 
weight and fineness of a gold dollar. It has defined it at present 
at 25.8 grains of standard gold, 0.9 fine. Congress having thus 
absolute power to "define the weight and fineness of a dollar," can, 
therefore, even according to Senator Sherman, and indeed all the 
gold-coin worshippers, reduce the value of its gold dollars to any 
amount it pleases, by decreasing the standard of its weight and fine- 
ness, — making it, indeed, so low that a gold dollar will really have 
no more intrinsic value than a well-engraved piece of paper. 



170 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

In regard to the silver coin there is also, as will be seen, a differ- 
ence of some seven per cent between the commercial value of the 
metal and the coins themselves. Whence does this difference arise? 
Why should twenty-five cents' worth of copper metal, when coined, 
be able to purchase in the market one hundred and sixty cents' worth 
of copper coins ? and ninety-three cents' worth of silver, when coined, 
be able to purchase one hundred cents' worth? 

Is it not evident, then, that the so-called silver men are, at least in 
theory, advocates of ray system of an absolute national money? Do 
they not recognize and admit that it is simply the legal-tender quality 
which is given td the metal by the government stamp and authority 
that causes the marvellous transformation of value in silver ; and that 
there.is no earthly reason why that same sovereign power of govern- 
ment could not be exercised upon any other material substance? 
Gold and silver were originally selected as money-tokens probably 
because of their comparative scarcity, which in the times of arbitrary 
despotisms formed a sort of check upon the money-issuing power of 
government. In republican Sparta, however, this was not considered 
necessary, and iron was the metal selected for coining. But under 
our form of government b}^ the people, there is no danger in selecting 
any sort of substance for the purpose of converting it into money. 
Besides, silver has recently been discovered in quantities so large, 
that were it not for the large demand still made upon the metal for 
coining purposes, its "commercial value" would sink even still 
lower than it is now; for as yet nearly all the nations of Europe, in- 
cluding Great Britain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, 
Austria, and Russia, use subsidiary silver coins in which the commer- 
cial and legal values differ, as they do in England and the United 
States. And silver is still a legal tender at this time in the follow- 
ing countries: France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, India, 
Netherlands, Greece, Russia, Spain, the Argentine Confederation, 
Bolivia, Canada, Chili, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, 
Haj'ti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, San Salvador, 
Uruguay, Venezuela, Morocco, Ceylon, China, Japan, Java, Siam, 
and the Sandwich Islands. 

How greatl}^ this demand for silver for coining purposes, and the 
steady increase in the production of silver from mines, affects the 
commercial value thereof, can indeed be strikingly shown by the 



MONEY. 



171 



fact that when silver was demonetized — that is, constituted no longer 
a legal tender for any but very small sums — in Germany (1871) 
and in the United States (1873), the price of the metal fell in 
London from about sixty pence per ounce to forty-six and a half 
pence per ounce. And although it has since risen again, owing to 
heavy demands for silver from China and India, and the fact, that 
the United States has reinstated silver as full legal tender, the in- 
crease in the production of silver is so much larger than it was for- 
merl}' that its market value may at any time fall even considerably 
lower than the lowest price it has yet reached. This increase in 
silver production is partly indicated by the following tables : — 

Estimate of Gold and Silver Produced in the United States from 1845 to 1879, 

inclusive. 

[From OlQcial Reports hj the Director of the Mint of the United States.] 



Gold. 



Silver. 



Total. 



1845 

1846 

1847 •. . . . 

1848 

1849 

1850 

1851 

1853 

1853 

1854 

1855 

1856 

1857 

1858 

1859 

1860 

1861 

1863 

1863 

1864 

1865 

1866 

1867 

1868 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1873 , . . 

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879 

Total thirty-five yeai-s 



$1,008, 
1,239, 
889, 
10,000, 
40,000. 
50,000, 
55,000. 
60,000. 
65,000. 
60,000. 
SSi^OOO. 
55,000. 
55,000, 
50,000. 
50,000. 
46,000. 
43,000. 
39,200. 
40,000, 
46,100. 
53,225. 
53,500: 
51,725. 
48,000; 
49,500: 
50,000. 
43^00. 
36,000; 
36,000. 
33,490. 
33,467. 
39,929! 
46,897. 
51,206. 
38,899: 



From 1849 to 

1858. 

Estimated 

product, 

$50,000 per 

annum. 

(The silver 

mines of the 

Unit'd States 

were 

discovered 

in 1859.) 

$500,000 

100,000 

150,000 

2,000,000 

4,,500,000 

8,500,000 

11,000,000 

11,250,000 

10,000,000 

13,500,000 

12,000,000 

12,000,000 

16,000,000 

23,000,000 

28,750,000 

35,750,000 

37,324,594 

31,727,560 

38,783,016 

39,793,573 

45,281,385 

40,812,132 



$1,008,327 
1,139.357 
889,085 
10.000,000 
40,000,000 
50.000,000 
55,000,000 
60,000,000 
65,000,000 
60,000,000 
55,000,000 
55,000,000 
55,000,000 
50,.500,000 
50,100,000 
46.150,000 
45,000,000 
43,700,000 
48,500,000 
57,100,800 
64,475,000 
63,500,000 
65,225,000 
60,000,000 
61,500,000 
66,000,000 
66,500,000 
6*,'750,000 
71,750,000 
70,815,496 
65,195,4re 
78,712,183 
86,690,963 
96,487,745 
79,711,990 



$1,487,678,301 $422,723,360 $1,910,400,561 



172 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

In this connection the following tables will also be of interest : — 



I. 

Estimated Annual Production of .the Precious Metals throughout the World, 

A. D. 1878. 

[Prepared for the American Almanac by David M. Balfour, of Boston.] 

AMERICA. 



Countries. 


Gold. 


Silver. 


Total. 


British Columbia 


$3,000,000 

36,000,000 

1,000,000 

10,000,000 

10,000,000 

4,000,000 

1,000,000 

2,000,000 

1,000,000 

1,000,000 

1,000,000 




$3,000,000 
83,000,000 
16,000,000 
11,000,000 
11,000,000 
5,000,000 
6,000,000 
5,000,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 


United States 


$47,000,000 
15,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 
5,000,000 
3,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 




Central America 


Colombia 


Brazil 


Peril 


Chili 










Total 


$70,000,000 


$76,000,000 


$146,000,000 



Countries. 


Gold. 


Silver. 


Total. 




$17,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,-500,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 


$1,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000.000 
2,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 


$18,000,000 
3,000,000 
2,000,000 
3,500,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 




Prussia 


France 


Spain 


Otiier countries 


Total 


$23,500,000 


$7,000,000 


$30,500,000 



ASIA, ETC. 



— 9 

Countries. 


Cold. 


Silver. 


Total. 


J^pan 


$1,500,000 
5,000,000 
2,000,000 
6,000,000 

18,000,000 
8,000,000 
5,000,000 
1,000,000 


$1,000,000 


$2,500,000 
5,000,000 




China 




2,000,000 
11,000,000 


Archijielago 


5,oob,66o 

2,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000 




20 000,000 


N^ew Zealand 


9,000,000 




6,000,000 


Oceanica 


2,000,000 




Total . 


$46,500,000 


$11,000,000 


$57,500,000 






Grand total 


$140,000,000 


$94,000,000 


$234,000,000 



MONEY. 



173 



II. 

Estimated Amount of the Precious Metals calculated to have been obtained 
from the Surface and Mines of the Earth from the Earliest Times to the 
dose of 1 87 9. 

[Estimate based, in part, upon a work on "Gold and Silver," by the Russian Councillor 
Osreschkoff, published in 1856.] 



Period. 



Gold. 



Silver. 



Total. 



A. C 

A.D. to 1493 . . , 
1493 to 1842 . . . 
1843 to 1853 . . . 
1853 to 1863 . . . 
1863 to 1879 . . . 

Grand total 



$1,415,000,000 
3,842,374,000 
3,726,000,000 
907,000,000 
2,220,000,000 
2,958,000,000 



$2,913,000,000 
531,000,000 

5,800,000,000 
450,000,000 
560,000,000 

1,071,000,000 



$4,338,000,000 
4,363,374,000 
8,526,000,000 
1,357,000,000 
3,780,000,000 
4,029,000,000 



$14,068,374,000 



$11,315,000,000 



$25,383,374,000 



III. 

Estimate of the Aggregate Production of the Precious Metals in all Countries 
from 1493 to 1875. 

[From A. Soetbeer's " Edelmetall Produktion seit der Entdeckung Amerikas bis zur 
Gegemvart." Gotha, 1879.] 



Countries. 



Silver. 



Gold. 



Total. 



Germany 

Austria-Hungary 

Various European countries 

Russia 

Africa 

Mexico 

New Granada 

Peru 

Potosi (Bolivia) 

Chili 

Brazil 

United States 

Australia , . 

Various countries .... 

Total 



$269,731,339 

•264,961,603 

351,888,604 

83,880,291 



2,600,280,659 



1,065,357,084 

1,386,999,947 

89,024,298 



179,874,133 

' 68,244,060 



$236,248,247 



507,749,653 
359,325,340 
130,174,396 
596,501,675 

80,337,583 
144,398,100 
129,467,140 
509,347,107 
995,126,015 
889,963,800 

74,4.58,346 



3,159,241,948 



$4,643,087,395 



$369,731,339' 
491,209,850' 
3.51,888,604 
590,639,941 
359,325,340' 

3,730,4.55,0.55 
596,501,675 

1,145,684,666. 

1,431,398,047 
218,491,438 
509,347,107 

1,175,000,138 
889,963,800 
142,702,340 



3,802,329,343 



One of the strangest facts attending the late remonetization of sil- 
ver in our country is this : that it utterly broke down the exclusive 
rule of the gold men. At first, when greenbacks were not yet 
made receivable for duties and imposts, the metallic-money advo- 
cates clamored for the withdrawal of all paper money, crying aloud, 
that only the precious metals — gold and silver — could be coined 



174 LIBERTY AI^D LAW. 

into real money, — money of intrinsic value. The- wonderful dis- 
coveries of silver ore in the Madre and Nevada ranges, soon after * 
occurring, led to the demonetization of silver. For, the men who 
monopolized the gold, led by the Rothschilds and other Jewish and 
Christian bankers, then all at once discovered that silver was not 
a ' ' precious metal ; " it being understood that these bankers would 
not be able to control the money market if the gold currency — 
comparatively of small amount — were annually increased to an in- 
calculable extent by the currency manufactured out of the newly 
discovered silver-mines. Why, the control of the world's money 
would pass out of their hands, and what then would become of their 
"profits?" It soOn became apparent, however, that with the with- 
drawal of silver from the money market as legal tender, universal 
bankruptcy must follow hand-in-hand. This suited the banking 
people well enough, since it would enable them to buy out farmers 
and merchants at an insignificant sum ; but it did not suit the people. 
So, after a long and bitter fight, the people succeeded in having sil- 
ver remonetized ; and behold the result ! 

Offer a man $1,000 of "precious metal" money in silver, and he 
turns his back on you in disgust, begging on his knees for " rag 
money" in place of it. He prefers the rag even to gold. Thus 
paper money at once became again the favorite medium of money 
exchanges, and the remonetization of silver, with the remoiietization 
of greenbacks in October, 1878, by receiving them for duties at the 
custom-house, has made the greenback even the superior of gold, and 
at a considerable premium above silver. 

But, to return to our subject, namely, the real value of the so- 
called precious metals, when considered apart from the value artifi- 
cially given them by using them as the exclusive means of money 
exchanges. Benjamin Franklin says: "Gold and silver are not 
intrinsically of equal value with iron. Their value rests chiefly in the 
estimation they happen to he in among the generality of7iations. Any 
other well-founded credit is as much an equivalent as gold and silver. 
Paper money, well founded, has great advantages over gold and sil- 
ver ; being light and convenient for handling large sums, and not 
likely to have its volume reduced by demands for exportation. On 
the ivhole, no method has hitherto been formed to establish a medium 
of trade equal in all its advantages to bills of credit made a general 
legal-tender.'" 



MONEY. ,175 

But in spite of Franklin and other eminent American statesmen, it 
is objected that this plan of mine of a new money-basis is a purely- 
idealistic, new, visionary, and altogether impracticable scheme. Prac- 
tically, I may refer to the fact, that the Empire of Russia has such a 
money scheme in constant operation. It is very true, that Russia also 
recognizes gold and silver coins as legal-tender money, when stamped 
with the stamp of the Russian government ; but it is none the less 
true, that the Russian government has issued, and does continually 
issue paper tokens, stamped with the stamp of the government, which 
are equally legal tender throughout all the dominions of Russia. Its 
present paper-money circulation is about $850,000,000, and irredeem- 
able in coin. In the same way the French Republic authorized the 
Bank of France to issue so-called irredeemable paper-money, besides 
coining gold and silver pieces ; and that irredeemable paper-money is 
there a full legal tender for all debts, duties, and taxes, and has the 
same value in the money market that those gold and silver coins 
have. I might furthermore add, that of all European countries, 
France, which has authorized precisely such an absolute, irredeem- 
able paper-money as constitutes the basis of my system, is, next to 
Russia, the most prosperous nation of Europe ; that England owes 
its financial prosperity altogether to its paper-money system, — for 
the Bank of England, suspending specie payment as it does in any 
crisis, ad libitum, is virtually organized on the basis of the system 
proposed by me ; whilst the German Empire, of all European nations, 
most stubbornly given to the notion that gold metal alone is a proper 
measvire wherewith to interchange commodities, is plunged into con- 
stantly growing financial distress. 

Now, if France and Russia can thus make use of irredeemable 
paper-money as a medium of commercial interchange, with evident 
advantage to the citizens of those nations, and if one of those coun- 
tries -(Russia, at least) has done so for years and years, why should 
my proposition be cried down as an innovation upon all previously 
recognized financial maxims, such as could be attributed only to the 
wild imagination of impractical dreamers? Nay, have we not our- 
selves had and used every hour of the day such a money these past 
eighteen years, and found it to enhance our national prosperity be- 
yond all previous experience? 

The demonetization of silver in 1873, and the Specie Resumption 
Act of 1875, to destroy the greenback cii'culation in 1879, caused 



176 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

such distress among the manufacturing and trading classes, that 
about eight hundred thousand persons were driven into bankruptcy 
for the want of a sufficient supply of money circulation. The remon- 
etization of silver in 1878, followed by the order of Secretary Sher- 
man to take greenbacks at par with gold for duties on and after the 
1st of October, 1878, removed the impending fear of the greenbacks 
being destroyed in January, 1879. The whole paper currency of the 
national banks and the greenbacks — about $740,000,000 — was thus 
thrown into general circulation again, and the coin basis became a 
full legal-tender greenbacJc basis. No one desired a coin redemption. 
The greenback has thus become the equal of the legal-tender demand- 
note of August, 1861, because it is a full legal-tender, subject to be 
redeemed in silver on demand at the treasury, and in gold also, if 
the secretary has it on hand. The result has been what I predicted 
it would be, in the pamphlet entitled " Gold, Silver, and Paper as Full 
Legal-Tenders," published in February, 1877. The seven years' war 
of the money-power to destroy the greenbacks and return to a coin- 
basis sj^stem of banking has terminated in establishing the validity 
of this national absolute money forever. It is the full legal-tender 
quality of the greenback that gives it value for circulation, not the 
provision of law that you may get silver coin, or perhaps gold, for it 
at the treasury. 

Many years ago one of the foremost of German patriots and phi- 
losophers, John G. Fichte, — the first of his age who foresaw and 
foretold the vinification of the German States under the leadership of 
Prussia, — urged the adoption of a money system similar to that pro- 
posed by me, mainl}^ upon this ground : that it would cement a 
united Gei'man Empire closer together than any other measure could 
effect ; and the renowned minister of Prussia, to whom he dedicated 
his work, — Von Strnensee, — far from dismissing the scheme con- 
temptuously, as the impracticable dream of an idealist, gave 'it his 
careful consideration, and expressed to the author his high apprecia- 
tion of the work. The proposition, indeed, is very simple: A nation 
requires a national money. It must be a separate sovereign financial 
body, just as well as it is a separate sovereign political body amongst 
the nations of the earth. They viust accept our financial as well as 
our civil, criminal, and political legislation, and they will do so. A 
nation cannot afford to be dependent upon foi-eign countries for its 
money medium of interchange ; nor can it afford to be dependent 



MONEY. 177 

upon the money-monopolists amongst its own citizens. Omnipotent 
in executing its own laws, in calling forth armies, in building fleets,. 
and providing in infinite waj^s for the public welfare, — ought a gov- 
ernment to be impotent in that one matter of creating an absolute 
mone}', without which it can execute none of those prerogatives ? 

We are told that the regulation of money does not pertain to the 
functions of government, but should be left exclusively to the people 
themselves, and that government should confine its activity simply to 
the protection of the life, liberty, and property of its citizens. I fear, 
however, that this desire to limit the authority of the government as 
much as possible, overleaps its own object. The mere fact, that 
every nation has been compelled to erect mints, and coin the gold 
and silver brought to them by impressing the government stamp upon 
the metals, shows that government cannot, at any rate, leave the entire 
regulation of the money question to its citizens. It must interfere to 
some extent, and the only question is, how far its interference shall 
extend. I think I have conclusively shown that government must 
take control of the whole subject of money issue, and forbid every 
outside interference with it. Under any other condition, a scientific 
money-system is impossible. The United States government might, 
with equal propriety, confer its political and sovereign prerogatives — 
to make war and to levy taxes — upon the States and private corpora- 
tions, as to allow the States and banks to create money. The Federal 
Constitution speaks in unmistakable terms on this subject. The 
founders and statesmen of our republic had no doubts in regard to it. 
They saw clearW the danger of giving the States and private corpora- 
tions the right to create money. They wanted the nation at large to 
be the exclusive maker of this money, — the nation, which alone could 
afford it adequate support by its wealth, sovereignty, and power. But 
popular prejudice in favor of specie was still too strong for them at 
that time. Even as it needed "a great war and the most serious 
necessities of the State before the founders of the Bank of England 
could introduce amongst the people of Great Britain the blessings of 
paper money," to which, though it was irredeemable from 1797 to 
1822, "that country has been mainly indebted for its subsequent 
prosperity," ^ so it required a great civil war and irresistible necessi- 
ties to force our government, in 1861-4, into the doing of what 



1 The "Economy of Capital," by E. H. Patterson, p. 456. 

12 



] 78 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

should have been done at the time of the formation of our Union : 
the issue of a national money, not redeemable in specie, but made by 
law a legal tender all over the country, and receivable by the gov- 
ernment for all taxes and dues, with the unfortunate exception of 
duties and imposts, for which only the demand-notes of 1861 and 
specie were made receivable. All that remains to be done now is to 
eariy out that system of legal-tender money to its logical complete- 
ness, in making it also receivable for imposts and duties by act of 
Congress, in repealing the acts creating the national banks, and re- 
deeming their notes with the new government legal-tender money, 
and in issuing that nionej'^ for the purchase and cancellation of our 
interest-bearing bonds, thus making it the only money in the country, 
and thereby demonetizuig gold and silver forever. The national 
banks will thus be divorced from the treasury and from Congress, 
and it will be their interest to organize under State laws as joint- 
stock banks, subject to similar regulations as those that the national- 
banking laws now impose upon national banks. The unthinking and 
ignorant may call this a visionary, impractical scheme, the mere 
suggestion of which would be received everywhere out of America 
with laughter and ridicule. It may, therefore, not be inappropriate 
here to state that, apart from the proofs furnished by the critical and 
historical parts of my book on "Absolute Money," which demon- 
strate clearly that the financial world has steadily drifted nearer to 
the adoption of such a mone}^ scheme as I have proposed, and apart 
from the open advocacy of such a national paper-money system by 
the most brilliant American statesmen of every period of its history, 
from its foundation to the present time, it has numerous supporters 
amongst the foremost of European financiers. In illustration, I will 
cite onl}^ one, Mr. R. H. Patterson, an Englishman, a Tory, and a 
thorough conservative, who is recognized as the ablest writer on 
finances in all England, and from whose writings I have quoted liber- 
ally in various parts of this book. 

The gist of ray whole money-scheme lies in the true definition of 
mone3^ as I have elaborated it in that book ; and this is what Mr. 
Patterson says on the subject: — 

"The quality which gives to gold, paper, and other substances 
their circulating power as money, is simply the agreement on the 
part of nations to recognize those substances, either of themselves 



MONEY. 179 

or when presented in certain forms as representatives of wealth." i 
And again: " Demonetize gold, * * * and no man would give a 
dollar for a whole ounce of it. » * * it would descend from its 
high estate to the rank of an ordinary metal." And on page 25: 
*' Demonetize the precious metals, and a laborer would no longer give 
a week's work for a bit of gold and silver, which he could do nothing 
with except to give to his wife as an ornament. Men would no longer 
consent to be paid in bits of metal which no grocer, or butcher, or 
tailor would accept in exchange for his goods." 

In another part of his work (pp. 447, 451) he expresses himself 
as follows : — 

" Paper money has already established itself as a representative of 
gold money ; what it must next do is to establish itself as a substitute ' 
for gold money, just as the gold coins of old, from being representa- 
tive of oxen, became b^'^-and-by a substitute for them in commercial 
transactions, and invested with a recognized value of their own. 
* * * Startlingly various as are these forms of currency, [in 
various parts of the world] they all agree in this : that they are 
recognized b}'^ the people as mediums of exchange, and this is the 
sole, indispensable requisite of any form of money." 

This, however, is only a collateral plea in favor of my money-sys- 
tem, which must stand or fall by its claim that it is the only rational 
scheme of finance in this new era for a cooperative government, such 
as ours professes to be. This claim I have endeavored to substan- 
tiate to the best of my ability : firstly, negatively, b}' showing that all 
other systems of money — whether of gold or silver coins, or paper 
money issued on a so-called specie basis, or on collateral interest- 
bearing bonds, or on real-estate mortgages — are inadequate, produc- 
tive of financial disasters, and oppressive upon the people ; and sec- 
ondly, aflfirmatively, by showing that my system of absolute money is 
adequate for all possible contingencies, subject to no fluctuations, and 
the cheapest, while at the same time the safest, of all money-issues. 

Another prominent writer on the subject recognizes the urgent 
necessity of introducing such a system of an absolute national 
money, on the principles stated by me, in the following words : — 

"^ declared value, backed up> by the honor, faith, and stability of 
an enlightened government, is the only hind of a vcdue which can ever 



^ See "Economy of Capital," p. 20. 



180 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

be considered a standard or fixed value. Gold and silver, pearls and 
diamonds, cowrie shells and copper, cloth and ivory, are sure to have 
a fluctuating value, and human legislation nor arbitrary edict can ever 
fix an unalterable value upon them. 

"But with the government paper token there need hardly be any 
variation in the supply, and none in the value. A rapidly growing 
country like the JJyiited States would of course need to increase its vol- 
ume of paper money at certain times, so as to keep pace with the exten- 
sion of its commerce and the accumulation of actual wealth in the: 
shape of population, improved farms, enlarged cities, increased pro- 
ductions, etc. The time is fast ripening for a broader consideration 
of the question of what shall be the money of civilized nations, than 
has heretofore been accorded to it. The commerce of the world has. 
to a great extent been carried forward upon faith in others. Prom- 
ises to pay coin have accomplished more, and still accomplish more,, 
than payments of coin. With this fact as a central plank, cannot a 
grand international financial platform be erected, upon which all 
enlightened nations may equally and securely rest?" 

I shall show, further on, that my system of an absolute national 
money tends precisely to the establishment of such an international 
financial platform, through an international clearing-house, and partly 
also through international po&tal, savings, and exchange banks. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HISTOEY OF OUR PAPER MONEY. 

In the year of the Declaration of Independence of the United 
States, the Continental Congress, having no control of sufficient gold 
and silver to carry on the Kevolutionary war, was forced by that great 
exigency to establish a paper currency, and authorize the issue of 
such money as the only available means for exchanging values and 
prosecuting the conflict with Great Britain to a successful issue ; but 
it had no clear comprehension of the sovereign right of the new 
republic to create a national money of its own. During the year 
1776, $20,000,000 were issued, and before the close of the war more 
than $357,000,000 of Continental currency was in circulation in the 
United States. 



MONEY. 



181 



While the colonists were battling for their right to a free repre- 
sentative government against the despotism of tiie British Parlia- 
ment, the}^ did not seem to be aware of the fact that an equally 
■dangerous money-despotism, controlled and wielded with great skill 
by their adversary, could be counterbalanced only by a national 
financial system of their own creation. To a certain extent this was 
accomplished by the plan adopted ; but if that Congress had made 
its currency, to the exclusion of all other money, a legal tender 
for all demands, public and private, secured as it would have then 
been by the wealth and resources of the nation, even then a permanent 
national money-system would have been established by the new re- 
public, facilitating the triumph of its arms, compensating it for the 
great losses and expenses of the war, and at the same time breaking 
ihe shackles of the coin-despotisms of the Old World in our republic, 
which to this day continue to oppress and embarrass our people. 

The Continental money was created merely as a temporary war- 
measure, necessary to insure success to our arms in that memorable 
•conflict, and was redeemable in gold and silver of foreign countries ; 
but as soon as the crisis was over it was repudiated in bad faith, to 
the ruin of many patriotic soldiers and citizens, and the injury of our 
national credit and financial standing among nations. If that cur- 
rency had been made a full legal-tender when issued, the total amount 
of the issues would not have been one-fourth of the amount repu- 
diated in 1782-3, and would have greatly added to the prosperity of 
the people of the States, by giving them a universal national money- 
medium of intercommunication to develop their inexhaustible re- 
sources, to unfold to full activity all the producing, manufacturing, 
trading, and commercial industries of the people, and to defend them 
against and emancipate them from all foreign as well as domestic 
monetary monopolies. After that repudiation great financial distress 
•ensued, paralyzing all kinds of business for the want of money to 
carry it on, until the j^ear 1791, when the establishment of a United 
States bank by Congress relieved, in a great degree, the previous 
money-pressure. 

The charter of that bank expired in 1811, and no other money- 
tokens remaining but gold and silver, and a small quantit}' of State 
bank-notes based on coin, wholl}' insufficient in quantity to furnish a 
circulating medium for the increasing business and commerce of the 
people, another period of suffering for the want of money ensued, 



182 LIBERTY AND LAAV. 

and the war of 1812 with Great Britain so increased it, that a second 
United States bank of issue was chartered for twenty years, in 1816, 
which again temporaril}^ relieved and restored the business activlt^^ of 
the people. 

Meanwhile the States of the republic began to charter banks, with 
power to issue paper money, in violation of the spirit of the Constitu- 
tion, although the Federal Supreme Court, under the pressure of an 
apparent public necessity, held their charters to be valid. The paper- 
money issues of the Federal and State banks furnished a large addi- 
tion to the circulation and exchanges ; but different kinds of money 
were thus introduced, in addition to coin, and the almost universal 
depreciation of the value of many of the State bills, at any consider- 
able distance from the place of their issue and redemption, injuriously 
affected business and commerce, by subjecting such bank-notes to 
brokerage discounts, and thereby forcing the banks into a continual 
warfare with each other, to compel coin redemptions for the protec- 
tion of their several issues. 

This kept alive and flourishing the coin-basis system of finance, 
and finally created a conflict between the Federal banks and State 
banks, that culminated in 1833, when President Jackson, espousing 
the cause of the State banks, compelled the government moneys to 
be removed from the United States Bank to certain State banks, which 
became the depositories of the public moneys and the authorized 
agents of the treasur3^ The opposition of the president and the 
Democratic party, and the removal of the deposits, caused the down- 
fall of the Federal bank, and the national credit and moneys passed 
to the State braiks, that were thenceforth known as " pet banks." 

Then arose an era of irresponsible, illegal State banking, upon a 
coin basis, — fraudulently so called, — controlled exclusively by pri- 
vate corporations of the States, for their own profit, resulting in 
enormous issues of paper money, causing an extravagant inflation of 
the currency, aiid increasing speculative manias to such an extent, 
that nearly all those banks suspended in 1837, with an irredeemable 
currency flooding the countr}^ The universal distress and prostra- 
tion of all business and trade was such that Congress passed acts, in 
1837, 1838, and 1839, for the issue of treasury-notes to the amount 
of $10,000,000 m each of those years, for the rehef of the people, by 
furnishing them a national money amply secured by the credit :uid 
vast resources of the republic. 



MONEY. 183 

These laws gave some temporary relief to the extraordinary strin- 
gency of the mone}^ market, but the government did not yet perceive 
the true remedy for financial revulsions to be a national currency, and 
these wise acts were repealed in 1841, and Congress in the same year 
deemed it necessary to pass a national bankrupt act. 

Those State banks that did not forfeit their charters or discontinue 
their business, one after another resumed specie payments, and the 
working of the monetary sj^stem under their management, from 1843 
to 1861, illustrated the ruinous results arising from the delegation to 
States or corporations of the sovereign power of making money or 
Issuing notes on a coin basis to form a circulating medium for the 
people of the United States. That system of a coin basis has invari- 
ably failed; as it had failed in 1809, 1816, 1821, 1827, 1837, and 
1842, so it now again failed in 1846 and 1857. 

This frequent recurrence of panics during that period demon- 
strated the fallacy of keeping up a permanent circulation of paper 
money, issued by divers State banks, that was always to be redeem- 
able in specie on demand. The mutual jealousy of such banks will 
ultimately reduce the circulation to the coin on hand, and a great 
scarcity of money will ensue ; or if the issues greatly exceed the 
specie in their vaults, and a demand for gold arises, as in 1837-57, 
the banks so organized must suspend specie payments, to the ruin 
and distress of all persons depending upon their circulation for the 
transaction of business. The producing, laboring, manufacturing,' 
and trading citizens of the United States have lost in the 3'ears prior to 
the rebellion, by this coin-basis system of finance, OA^er one thousand 
millions of dollars. 

At the breaking out of our civil war in 1861, the Federal govern- 
ment had no paper money outstanding, and gold and silver were its 
only recognized standards of value. It immediately became appai-ent, 
that sums of money immensely beyond the sum of all the gold and 
silver on hand would be needed to supply the sinews of war; and 
the stringency seemed all the greater in that the effects of the mon- 
etary crisis of 1857-8 had not yet passed away. The State banks 
had alread}^ proved wholly inefficient for managing the monetary- 
affairs of the nation in time of peace, even with the assistance of the 
sub-treasury, organized in 1846 ; and no other course remained open 
than the organization of a money system independent of coin, and in 
July, 1861, the issue of $60,000,000 of demand-notes, receivable for 
duties and imposts, was authorized b}' Congress. 



184 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

But the government, instead of continuing the money policy thus 
inaugurated, and of making all its issues a legal tender for all debts 
thereafter contracted, changed the issue in 1862 to legal-tender notes, 
receivable for all debts except coin interest on bonds, and duties and 
imposts. Four hundred million dollars of this currency were issued 
in 1862-3 ; and, to make it the supreme paper-money of the country, 
a heavy tax was levied upon the circulation of the State banks, which 
were thereby virtually suppressed. 

It may be worth while, even after so long a time has passed away, 
to recall more in detail that disgraceful action of Congress by which, 
in 1862, the greenbacks were thus virtually demonetized, since they 
no longer were receivable for duties and imposts : for it was this 
demonetization which gave rise to that scandalous gold and silver 
speculation which, from the date of the passage of that bill to 
some eighteen months ago, swept over the whole country, and — 
demorahzing private individuals as well as business men, ruining 
•countless families, destroying commerce, and culminating in the Black 
Friday — died gradually away, only to give our business world the 
appearance of a once fertile and prosperous country over which a 
<ieadly simoom or a gigantic cloud of locusts had made a devastating 
passage. 

On the sixth day of February, 1862, the House of Representatives, 
in view of the fact that the issue of the $60,000,000 demand-notes had 
been exhausted, passed a bill authorizing the issue of $150,000,000 
more, having the same virtues of being full legal-tender and receiv- 
able for all debts and demands due to the United States, and for all 
.s;i!aries, dues, debts, and demands owing by the United States to 
individuals, corporations, and associations within the United States. 
The bill passed b}' a vote of ninety-three to fifty-nine. But no sooner 
had its contents been made known than all the banking, brokering, 
ci>in-speculating, and bondholding sharks sent off delegation after 
■delegation to Congress, urging its amendment so as to make those 
notes not receivable for interest on bonds, and, finally, also not 
receivable for duties and imposts. These amendments the Senate 
was induced — l\y what means it is unnecessary to suggest — 
to annex to the House bill; and the bill, so amended, was then 
passed in the Senate by a vote of thii'ty to seven, and returned 
to the House on the 14ih of Februaiy. Owing to the pressing 
necessities of the civil wiw, the House was constrained to pass it on 
the 24th, by a vote of ninely-seven to twenty-two. Thus were the 



MONEY. 185 

most sacred interests of the people, especiall}' of the producing 
classes, — the farmer, the mechanic, the manufacturer, and the la- 
boring man, — grossly and wickedly betrayed into the hands of the 
money-power by the Senate of the United States. The Senate at 
that time was a small bodj^, but twenty-four States being represented, 
with but three or four members whose ability was above mediocrity. 
The occupants of seats once filled by statesmen whose ability and 
eloquence had made the Senate of the United States famous through- 
out the world, were now puffed up with ideas of self-importance which, 
with the venality of the majority of that body, made them an easy 
prey for the sharks of Wall Street. It will be observed, that the 
points contended for so strenuously and successfully by the con- 
ference committee of the Senate, who represented the sentiment of 
the majorit}^ of the body, were, in substance and effect, the same as 
those contained in the plan of the bankers offered at their meeting 
which convened in Washington immediately after the introduction of 
the legal-tender bill in the House. That the Senate was controlled 
in its action in regard to the legal-tender bill by improper influ- 
ences is not a matter of conjecture, but history. In his speech at 
Pliiladelphia, January 15, 1876, Judge Kelley says: " I remember 
the grand ' Old Commoner,' Thaddeus Stevens, with his hand and 
his cane under his arm, when he returned to the House after the final 
conference, and shedding bitter tears over the result. 'Yes,' said 
he, ' we have had to yield ; the Senate was stubborn. We did not 
3neld until we found that the country must he lost or the banks be grat- 
ified, and we have sought to save the country in spite of the cupidity 
of its wealthier citizens." i 

Thus three kinds of money were established: the demand-notes, 
the legal-tender notes, and gold and silver, — placing a premium on 
the coin, over which the government had no control. The legal- 
tender currency issue was too small, and for some unaccountable 
reason Congress would not authorize the issue of more currency, and 
hence was forced to create a fourth kind of money, in the form of 
bonds of the United States, bearing heavy interest payable in coin, — 
although the principal of these bonds, known as five-twenties, was gen- 
erally understood to be pa3'ab]e in legal-tender currency, — and caused 
them to be sold, at a ruinous discount, for gold, which Congress had 
greatly enhanced in price by requiring all duties to be paid to the 



1 The Money Question. By Wm. A. Berkey, Grand Eapicls, Mich. 1876. 



186 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

agents of the treasury in specie, thus directly depreciating the legal- 
tender notes by refusing to receive them for duties payable to the 
government. 

The issue of these interest-bearing bonds during the war forced the 
government into the market to sell its own securities for its own legal- 
tender notes, or for gold ; and to do this it was deemed necessary to 
emplo}^ bankers and brokers, pay heavy commissions, and conti'act 
immense future obligations in the way of interest, in order that some 
banking-houses, with not a millionth part of its wealth and resources, 
might indorse its bonds and undertake their negotiation. Thus this 
wealthy and powerful government, by an unpardonable financial 
blunder, placed its finances at the mercy of foreign and domestic 
money-monopolies ; nay, sacrificed the wealth and prosperity -of 
future generations, by unnecessarily incurring an Interest debt which 
already demands a most oppressive rate of "taxation and duties to 
meet it. 

But even these miserably inconsistent financial measures of issuing 
several different kinds of treasury-notes, bonds, and national-bank 
notes demonstrated in a general way the wisdom of having a national 
money, controllable by the government. An era of prosperity for the 
United States began, and continued from 1863 to 1869-70, that made 
us almost forget the expenses and ravages of a gigantic civil war. 
Commerce, agriculture, and manufactures multiplied in wonderful 
proportions ; great public improvements of all kinds increased rap- 
idly on every side ; and this national prosperity would in all prob- 
ability have been permanent if the -acts of 1869-70 had not been 
passed, and thus a policy been adopted by the treasury, subjecting 
the established national currency, to a ruinous conflict with the old 
coin-despotism, supporting and supported by the money-monopolies 
that now rule the nation with a rod of iron. 

Indeed, from the very day that our government declared itself free 
from the tyranny of the Old World money, — gold and silver, — and 
issued its own money in place thereof, a new business life took pos- 
session of the whole country. Houses, manufactories, and machine- 
shops were erected for the new-developing business ; steam vessels 
and railroads were built on a scale never known before ; new Territo- 
ries populated and developed to an unparallelled extent, — so that it 
seemed almost as if, were it not for the sea-coast, we might afford to 
lose the whole South, and still be adequately recompensed by the 
new up-growing West. For full ten years from the first issue of 



MOXEY. 187 

greenbacks we enjoyed an era of financial prosperity, without any 
revulsion or business panic, — a growth of actual prosperity which is 
unparalleled in the history of our country. No decade of the past 
century of our historical existence as a nation was so free from 
financial distress, so fruitful of general development and individual 
wealth. 

The true policy, however, and the one suggested to the secretary 
of the treasury at the breaking out of the war, would have been to 
recommend to Congress the passage of a law for the creation of a 
national money, by the issue of legal-tender treasury-notes, receiv- 
able for all debts, demands, and duties, to the exclusion of all other 
money, thereby rendering gold and silver mei-e articles of commerce, 
like copper, lead, iron, and other products for import or export. 

If this policy had been approved by the. secretary of the treasury, 
or adopted by Congress without his recommendation, the war ex- 
penses would have been greatly diminished, and at the restora- 
tion of peace there would have been no national bonded war-debt 
and no national taxes ; and the people would have had a reliable 
national money for general circulation, to the exclusion of all other 
mone}', and better suited for business, commercial, and governmental 
purposes than any other money in the world. 

Instead of adopting this economical and statesmanlike policy to 
meet the public exigency, many vacillating, speculative, and unwise 
schemes were proposed by the treasury, adopted by Congress, and 
abandoned alternately, until the bond-credit of the United States, in 
1864, sank below that of .the Confederate States about twenty per 
cent in the London money market. This was the plain result of our 
own inconsistent, suicidal financial schemes, as will clearly appear 
from a brief review of them. 

The issue of the demand-notes of August, 1861, was followed by 
an issue of common legal-tender notes in lieu of them ; then of coin 
interest -bearing, five -twenty bonds, seven -thirty interest -bearing 
bonds, ti-easury three-year notes, three per cent certificates, more 
five-twenty bonds and gold certificates, until about $2,000,000,000 
five-twenty bonds had been issued. 

In fact, the main purpose of the financial administration of our 
affairs during the whole progress of the war seemed to be to create 
an enormous national debt, bearing a high rate of interest, and en- 
tailing upon the people ruinous taxes and tariffs. 

But, worse than all these extravagant and inconsistent measures: 



188 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



the government, finding that the people needed more currency for 
ready interchange, instead of issuing legal-tender notes in proportion 
as they were needed, created, in 1863, one of the most powerful 
monopolies in the world, by the National-Bank Act, and transferred 
to the money corporations to be organized thereunder the national 
sovereign power of issuing United States national-bank notes, paying 
them, moreover, virtually an annuity of six per cent in coin to accept 
the most valuable franchise in the gift of the government. 

Within five years there had been established sixteen hundred and 
twenty of these national banks, with a circulation of $300,000,000, 
secured by United States five-twenty bonds for $342,475,600, de- 
posited by them in the treasury t© secure their several circulations, 
issued upon such bonds, the redemption of which in legal-tender 
notes was guaranteed by the United States ; that is, the government 
paid those sixteen hundred and twenty banks an interest bonus of 
six per cent ia coin a vear on $342,475,600 of United States bonds, 
to accept the privilege of using $300,000,000 of such currency so 
issued to them, and loaning the money at the highest rates of in- 
terest. 

Within ten years more those sixteen hundred and twenty national- 
bank monopolies had increased to two thousand and forty-five, with 
a circulation of $335,134,504. The following table shows at a glance 
what an enormous power these banks — all combined into one mo- 
nopoly by common interests — wield over the people, and even over 
the government, and what vast profits they reap from the power so 
blindly and unjustly granted them by the government: — 

National Banks — Their Number, Capital, Surplus, and Dividends. 













'§ 


ngs. 


8 


-§1 


11 
•5 e 




A 


» 






a 


s 


:s^ 


:s».. 


a 












■« 






•s •* 


e 8 




•1- 

|t>2 


1 
>> 


e 


1 






^"1 


^'1 


^6 a, 
























« 


O 


I' 




js 


'i 


e 


8-2=2 


e-S^? 




?H' 


< 


C 


^ 


h 


5-< 


^ 


1^ . 


=si 


ISTO . 




1,601 


$425,317,104 


$91,630,620 


|42,.559,438 


$55,810,819 


10.12 


8.35 


10.96 


1S71. 








1,69,5 


445,999,264 


98,286,591 


44,330,429 


54,.55S,473 


• 10.14 


8.31 


10.23 


1S72. 








1,S52 


465,676,023 


105,181,942 


46,687,115 


58,075,430 


10.19 


8.33 


10.,36 


1.S73. 








1,055 


488,100,951 


118,113,848 


49,649,090 


65,048,478 


10.31 


8.30 


10.87 


1874 . 








1,971 


489,938,284 


128,364,039 


48,459,305 


59,580,931 


9.90 


7.87 


9.68 


1875 . 








2,047 


497,864,833 


134,123,649 


49,068,601 


57,936,224 


9.89 


7.81 


9.22 


187(1. 








2,081 


500,482,271 


132,251,078 


47,375,410 


43,638,152 


9.42 


7.45 


6.87 


1877. 








2,072 


486,324,860 


124,349,2.54 


43,921,085 


34,866,990 


8.93 


7.09 


5.62 


1878. 








2,047 


470,231.896 


118,687,134 


36,941,613 


30,605,589 


7.80 


6.21 


5.14 


1879. 








2,045 


455,132,656 


115,149,351 


34,942,921 


31,551,860 


7.60 


6.07 


5.49 



mo:ney. 18& 

This nnnous scheme of finance, invented, it is said, in the treasury, 
to aid the Federal government, is about equivalent to a loan of money 
by Mr. Prodigal to Mr. Shylock for twenty years, on a special agree- 
ment that the lender should pay the borrower six per cent yearly 
interest in coin for accepting the money so loaned, and assuming the 
trouble of lending it, at the highest rate of usury possible, for hi& 
own profit. 

But in order to rivet these chains of debt and interest more firmly 
upon the necks of the people, so that no future Congress could remove 
them, it was necessary for the bondholders, brokering speculators, 
and the national-bank stockholders — in short, for the gold-ring, 
which they together had meanwhile organized — to procure the 
passage of a law declaring the five-twenty currency bonds to be 
redeemable only in coin ; and to prevent the repeal of such an unjust 
law, another enactment was required, authorizing the issue of new 
bonds, with special contracts inserted therein binding the govern- 
ment to pay the principal and interest in coin, whereby, on the sale 
of the new bonds for gold, the proceeds would be used for the 
redemption of the five-twenty currency bonds in coin. 

To accomplish this purpose. Congress, on the 18th of March, 1869, 
passed a joint resolution pledging the faith of the nation to redeem 
the five-twenty bonds in gold, and on the 14th of July, 1870, another 
act, authorizing the issue of new gold-bonds, with gold coupons, to be 
sold for the redemption of the five-twenty currency bonds at par. 

About $2,000,000,000 of five-twenty currency bonds were thus- 
changed into coin bonds by the act of 1869, the burden falling 
with crushing force upon the tax-payers and producers of the present 
and future generations of our own people. These five-twenty bonds 
had most of them been purchased at an average coin price of about 
fifty cents on the dollar. By this act of Congress the national debt 
and all secured debts of individuals, contracted for currency during 
the war, were in reality doubled for the sole benefit of usurers, 
bondholders, and monopolists, and a new obligation was created 
for the American people, which it was impossible to fulfil, as shown 
by the subsequent bankruptcies. There was not half gold enough 
to be had anywhere to pay off the five-twenty bonds. It was a 
physical impossibility ; and, by the resolution assuming to pay it 
in coin, Congress virtually forced upon the nation a gigantic short 



190 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



sale of $2,000,000,000 in gold for $2,000,000,000 in five-twenty 
bonds that had already been sold for currency prices and were then 
outstanding, subject to be redeemed in legal-tenders. 

It was a i)old, treasonable cornering of the nation in the interest 
of the bondholders; and, injurious as its consequences have already 
been, in producing universal financial distress and innumerable bank- 
ruptcies, and far more threatening calamities of national insolvency 
and revolution that it holds out for the future, these calamities can 
be averted only by the repeal of the acts of 1869-70, and the passage 
of an act prohibiting the further sale of new gold-bonds, and requir- 
ing the redemption of all the remaining five-twenty currency bonds 
in legal-tender notes to be issued for that purpose, as was the original 
intention and understanding. 

That we cannot go on and do business under the present system 
must be evident to any one who will look over the following state- 
ment, and consider especially the figures for the failures of the years 
1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, and for nine months of 
1879: — 

Failures in the United States for Twenty-two Tears. 



Year. 



1857 
1858 
1859 
3860 
18(51 
1862 
18(33 
1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
18;0 
1871 
1S72 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 



No. 



Liabilities. 



4,932 
4,225 
3,9)3 
3,(576 
6,993 



1,505! 
2,780 
2,608 
2,799 
3,551 
2,915 
4,069 
5,183 
5,830 
7,740 
9,092 
8,872 
10,478 
5,320 



$291,750,000 

95,749,000 

64,394,000 

79,807,000 

207,210,000 



53,783,000 

96,66(5,000 

63,(i94,()00 

75,054,000 

83,242,000 

85,252,000 

121,036,000 

228,499,000 

155,239,000 

201,060,000 

191,117,000 

190,669,000 

234,383,132 

81,054,940 



In connection with this table it will be interesting to know the ex- 



MONEY. 



191 



tent of the failures in the several States for the full years of 1873 
and 1874. The following table gives the numbers and amounts : — 



states and Territories, 



1873. 



"s:s 



"'I 



Amount of 
Liabilities. 



1874. 



4.^ 



Amount of 
Liabilities. 



Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

District of Columbia . . . 

Florida 

Georgia 

Idaho Territory 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky . 

Louisiana 

Maine : . . 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan . 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Montana 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hampshire .... 

New Jersey 

New York 

New York City 

North Carolina 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Territories 

Utah Territory 

Vermont 

Virginia and West Virginia 
Washington Territory . . 
Wisconsin 

Total 



52 
17 
70 

'ioi 

31 
13 

10 
67 

'329 

1.34 

141 

94 

125 

74 

80 

63 

309 

248 

61 

79 

188 



27 
119 
544 
644 

63 
321 

'576 
58 
36 
77 
116 
44 

"bi 

125 



$1,337,000 

307,000 

1,500,000 

' "1,452,606 

663,000 

240,000 

258,000 

2,113,000 

' 7,ib9,666 

2,260,000 
1,917,000 

821,000 
2,287,000 
2,831,000 

753,000 

1,229,000 

11,'224,000 

3,917,000 

944,000 

909,000 
5,867,000 

3ii',666 
513,666 

2,482,000 

13,721,000 

92,635,000 

672,000 

11,320,000 

31,445,666 
15,250,000 
1,927,000 
1,086,000 
1,751,000 
868,000 

360,666 
2,188,000 

' 'l",574',666 



22 
68 

"isi 

27 

18 

14 

118 

'332 

167 

144 

94 

167 

99 

84 

110 

416 



66 

175 



32 
146 
573 
645 

56 
343 

'644 

71 
61 
94 
142 
67 

"36 

114 



$963,000 

406,000 

2,571,000 

' 2,286,666 

578,000 

256,000 

293,000 

1,845,000 

' 7,510,666 
2,397,000 
2,034,000 
988,000 
1,879,000 
4,429,000 
1,063,090 
1,691,000 

10,600,000 
4,477,000 
1,029,000 
1,. 555,000 
3,061,000' 

'"'521', 666 

266',666 

3,854,000 

10,295,000 

32,580,000 

542,000 

8,481,000 

34,774,666 
■1,250,000 
1,531,000 
1,585,000 
2,201,000 
969,000 

380,666 
1,514,0U0 

2,575,666 



5,183 



$228,499,000 



5,830 



$155,239,000 



It is interesting also to compare the disasters of these years with 
those of the period which has elapsed since the panic of 1857, which, 
like the panic of 1861 and the one of 1873, was brought about 
by a sudden sweeping away of paper money used for circulation, 
consequent upon attempts to establish an exclusively gold-money 



192 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

circulation. In each case it turned out, that there was virtually no 
gold to be used for money purposes, the quantity being so exceed- 
ingly small. It is also worthy of remark that although the panic of 
the year 1857 was the worst of any single year in the list in regard 
to the number of failures and amount of liabilities, the panic of 1873 
has been infinitely more disastrous, in that there has been no recovery 
as yet, though it has now lasted over six years, and that the dread 
of the non-repeal of the resumption act still perpetuates its conse- 
quences. The panic of 1857, on the other hand, lasted only one 
year, owing to the reissue of paper money in the very next year. 

The simple truth, which explains this extraordinary growth of 
bankruptcies, is, that we have been compelled to do business after 
1869 with two-thirds per capita less than densely populated France, 
and one-third less than England requires. The unavoidable result 
of this money scarcity was a general stoppage of industry, at an 
immense loss to the people of the United States, estimated at $500,- 
000,000 a year. Railroads, factories, business houses of every kind, . 
insurance and manufacturing companies, and navigation companies, 
went into bankruptcy, or were sold out for a mere song, the mem- 
bers of the gold-ring frequently becoming purchasers at merely 
nominal prices. A great number of counties in the Western States 
became virtually insolvent and unable to pay the interest on their 
debts, and still remain so. 

This scarcity of a circulating money-medium I have already alluded 
to as the cause of all the financial disasters that have afflicted the 
world. An abundance of currency is absolutely necessary to secure 
financial prosperity. The United States have, in this respect, been 
alwaj'^s somewhat at a disadvantage, in comparison with other great 
commercial countries, such as Austria, Belgium, France, Great 
Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, etc., as will appear 
from the following table, giving the — 



MONEY. 



193 



g 

s 






•9iodds 



'Uddvj^ 



'Qiodds 






OC^Or-(r-HOO00a>C::00Oir-Olr-^':0:ir-i 
f— lOOr-lC^ G^ I— I rH CO 



oo':a500coxi:ococDCOO(MrH';*<i-ao<Mi^-ooi.--i .-. 



-^OOOt— C0OO0:i«DOOOOOO'X)O'MOOOO»-H 
l0CCCDOC^-*O»0C000OOOOOOC^OO'OOCDOiO 

Qo "^ ct*" o oi" irT CO oT '"^ -^ cT o cT cT o o o c^ r-^ Iff o cT o cT 

OOr-liOCOCiOO^O-rJ-C^CUOO'— lOCOOlOClOOCDlO 
"^ ;D -^ O CO lO t- 0;^t^T-H^CO O^C3 lO C^^O^C^ lO^^t-^GC^O^C^r-J^ 

co'i— TrrT— TcT CD co'io c^i r- 1 o' c-i c-^r-Tt— i —, -^ -^oo co^oi xi cT— < 

CT)C-COC5CO -^C-ll^fSltJlt^OD-lOlOC^f— li— (OiCOC^rHCJi— I 
CO C^ Ot^OS r-ti— I.I— I T— ICDC^ rHi— irH 



^ 

^ 



?i 



fc^ 



p9fimii 



•U9pU9X 



coo 
o o o 
o_=_o 
o cTo 
oo o 

0-l^O__O__ 

CO io"o 



lOOOOOr-IOOOOOOOOOOO 
GCOOiOrHi— (OOOOC^Ot— lOOO 



OiOCO^OGlOOOOGOOXOOOfMO 



oo 
o S 
o_^o 
oo 

!M O 

^'"^'^ 

r Co' rn" t-^ t-^ O CT t^ ph' p-T lO O CT oT -TiT 



o o r— 00 o o 



o o o 
o_o__o_ 
o'o'o 
ooo 
oo__;o 
oo"t-^ 

1-1 -^lO 



IOOOOCNCCOOOO = 1000000 



XOOOOt^O 



O CO O OJ o o>o< 



050000^^0 0= : 



; ^ O O O O O) 



T-1 CO r-1 <N T-l 



1^ O CO r-l ;d 



^000(MC00001000000000C-T00>00m 
OC0OO-*-l'O>O'^l--OOOO)OO(MOOOOOOOi 



3 t— <o 

>_oc» 

n'of r^ a5"o Ci ct c-i irTco 



iOl^iOr-HGOOOL 



OCCOC::CM003COOO-tH 



e^ffllOi350» T-H CO 05 O rH CO -* t- i-l r-1 <M O) CO t-H 55 O OO 
CO .^iHCIO^rHi— 1 IC I-ICO 



OOiCpH— irHC^OOOOO-^^-rrlOiOtiC^Olc.ei^t^'^CO-^t^O 

CO o '/J o ;m ^ '^ CO o CO c^ lO --^ r^ c-1 o ^ iM ^ rH — 1 ic 't*! o 

^O p^^O^CO^COr-H^t-^COCO^OO r-^^C0^O^i0^a^O^O^C0^Gq^I.^«2^pH o^ 
-+ O O Od' of p^r oi" lo" t-^ f^r I -- 1--^ CO o~ cT o' oT IC ot" c^ of oT cT cT 
oocooo»r:T-io(Moiioooii't-oo5-^oo4 0JiC)OC3 
o^cq_co^^o^o^05^05^i-^o^-*^oo^o cyi^o^co^co^t^Oi^o^^* ir^coo 

O of oo" CO of i-roei'i-HiHCOC.OOrcOr-r(yr-* coco-* ffTrHlC 



CO 



CO-^CO C^ CO 



CQi-H 



CO-* 



O^OtCCOl— lOOOiOr^OrH^— 105100^100000 
COXWjXXCCGOOOCC-jOCOCOCOXOOQOCOaOXCOXCO 



. ce ^ . . =e^ 
=ei3 ceSSoSM 



<5 < :; p: _ -_■ a fe -J a -J ;::; -^ S ;< K?; ^ :h i: X' ;/; •/: Eh ti H 



rl <>< CO -* O CD 1-- CO : 



'C-ico-iiioot^a)o:o— -'■ 



i Ol 04 C^ 04 C^l 



13 



194 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

While all this financial ruin was going on, the gold-ring put on 
airs of virtue, with a brazenness absolutely astonishing. It ascribed 
all the depression that followed and preceded the crash of 1873, — 
though palpably the consequence of contraction, — as dne to the fact, 
that there had not been contraction enough ; that we were reaping 
the fruits of previous overtrading extravagance, and that we should 
never realize the prosperity of the years 1865-6-7, when greenbacks 
were abundant, unless contraction, that had worked our ruin, was 
carried to its baneful end by the retirement of the whole greenback 
circulation, amounting to $773,428,542, and the resumption of a 
purely specie basis, with its periodical financial earthquakes and ruin. 

So successful were the banks and the Gold Ring in imposing on 
the people of the countrj', that Congress was finally, by some inex- 
plicable means, persuaded in January, 1875, to decree the resumption 
of specie pa3'-menton the first of January, 1879. 

But to still further increase its profits, the gold-ring, being sure of 
liaving a legal hold on the United States government for an amount 
of gold money which cannot be obtained in the whole world, consum- 
mated its scheme of making itself the absolute master of the money- 
power of the United States, by presenting to Congress an act that 
was passed in January, 1875, directing the repeal of the Legal-Tender 
Act, and the resumption of specie payments by the government on the 
first day of January, 1879. It is a significant fact that the. repeal of 
the National-Banking Act was not provided for in this law. The 
United States was to redeem, in coin, the legal-tender greenbacks and 
the fractional currency ($413,428,542) outstanding in March, 1876, 
but what was to become of the national-bank notes ($360,000,000) 
then outstanding was not even suggested. 

In m3'' opinion, the scope and purpose of the act of January, 1875, 
was simply this : The people of the United States were to give up 
their legal-tender greenbacks, which they had found so convenient 
and economical for a circulating money- medium, and the treasury 
was to issue in their place bonds bearing interest. These bonds were 
to be sold for coin to cancel the legal tenders, and while this coin 
would not serve the people near as well as our greenbacks have served 
them, they moreover would have to pay the semi-annual coin interest 
on the four or five, hundred million dollars of bonds, without any 
benefit whatever. That this meant great national financial distress 
must be evident to every impartial mind. 



MONEY. 195 

But it meant also something more, and sometliing still more disas- 
trous. We can perpetuate our free institutions, as events have shown, 
even when internal dissensions seem to render us distracted for a 
while ; but with universal bankruptcy staring us in the face — bank- 
ruptc}^ of individuals, communities, States, and even of the Federal 
government — we must go under; most likely drift into Mexican 
anarchy and highway robbery. If any one thinks that this is an exag- 
geration, let him study carefully the monthly reports of bankruptcies 
in his locality, and reflect what number of subordinate failures and 
financial suffering must follow every reported case. One company or 
firm declares itself insolvent, or is declared insolvent, and a hundred, 
or mayhap a thousand persons are unable to pay their rent bills, grocery 
bills, Or butchers' and bakers' bills. The officers of the company, or 
the members of the firm, may for a while conti'ive to keep up living 
in style, especially if they have well feathered their nests before 
abandoning them to the tender mercies of the bankrupt law, to hatch 
out whatever it can from the generally pretty well incubated eggs 
therein ; but the employees have not that chance. Their landlords 
turn them out of their rooms; grocers, butchers, and bakers refuse 
them credit; without shelter, clothing, and food, what are they to do? 
Assuredly, when by continuing the foolish, suicidal financial policy 
which has ruled us ever since specie resumption was first talked about 
and quasi inaugurated, we shall all liave become beggars, the next 
and inevitable part of the programme will be to change us from a 
community of free republicans to a community of freebooters. 

To avert such a calamity, the only course to pursue, therefore, is 
to issue the absolute national legal-tender money of my system in 
sufficient quantity to redeem all the outstanding five-twenty bonds 
at par, and let Congress declare those bonds to be redeemable in that 
currency ; those legal-tender notes to be declared, moreover, the 
onlj' national money receivable for property, debts, and duties in the 
United States. This would give us a far better money system than 
we have now, or ever have had ; it would restore trade, commerce, 
and all industries to a sound and prosperous condition ; and at the 
same time it would prevent the monopolizing money-corporations of 
the country from unjustly taxing the people in the way of interest 
for the use of, money that really belongs to the government. 

To the objection, that it would be dangerous to intrust Congress 
with the power to issue such a money, — the only real objection 



196 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

raised, next to the one which I shall consider in the chapter on 
Foreign Exchange, — I reply : — 

1. All possibility of an illegitimate over-issue of money is precluded 
by my proposed system of annual statistics, which will show every 
year the amount of money needed to carry on the whole business of 
the United States. 

2. And I ask in return, how is the present money of account 
(which I propose to supplant by my system of absolute money) regu- 
lated in regard to the amount serving as a medium of circulation? 
Certainly not by any legislation. Banks spring up as the necessitiea 
of trade and commerce require their assistance, and deal in checks 
and bills of exchange as money of account, to the extent required by 
the needs of business, and unhappily the needs of fraudulent specula- 
tion. There is no legal guard against an over-issue under the pres- 
ent system of money of account, and hence it is rather hypercritical 
to ask such guards for my system. 

This is a fact which generally escapes attention, and which yet. 
must be evident to every observant mind the moment it is pointed 
out. A government, we hear it always said, must not have the power 
to issue money, because it is impossible to limit the volume of the 
issue definitely, and hence to prevent over-issue. Admitting, for the 
sake of the argument, that this were so, why is the same objection 
not applied to banks of discount and deposit, that exercise every day 
the power to increase the money of account (checks and drafts), 
which is used for the same purposes as bank-notes ? Why should the 
banks have and exercise the power of over-issuing (by excessive dis- 
counts), and why should the same people, who show no fear at all of 
the effects of this over-issue of money of account upon trade and 
prices, exhibit such excessive terror at an over-issue of national paper 
currency? The absurdity of this clamor has been well pointed out by 
Mr. Thomas Tooke, in his " Inquiry into the Currency Principle,'^ 
Chapters III. and V. The loans of the United States during the war 
times were nothing less than an "over-issue" of the world's money 
of account ; so was the five-milliard loan of the French government ; 
and yet both of these " over-issues " combined have neither disturbed 
prices nor thrown the financial world into convulsions. On the con- 
trary, both "over-issues," or increases of money, have proportion- 
ately increased the prosperity of the world. Nevertheless, I have 
shown that my system can and does furnish checks, since it woiks 



MONEY. 197 

■not as the present banking system, on "instinct," as it were, — that 
is, on pure chance, — but on a scientific metliod. 

3. I asli;, further: When you have a coin basis, have you any pro- 
tection against an undue increase of the circulating medium? None 
in the world. If a new gold-mine is discovered, your amount of 
money is suddenly increased to that extent. Hence the alarm of 
some foolish financiers when the vast gold-mines of California and 
Australia, and the silver mines of Nevada, Montana, Utah, and New 
Mexico were ojaened. "There will be an over-issue of money," 
<;ried they; "gold will depreciate probably even below the value of 
silver! " Nevertheless, nothing of the kind occurred, although 
$2,400,000,000 of the precious metals have been added to the world's 
coin-money from these mines. Prices are substantially the same now 
as they were when the California, Australia, Nevada, and other mines 
were first opened. 

4. Congress has always had the power to increase the amount of 
the circulating medium of commercial interchange in the United 
States by the issue of a new loan. If we can intrust Congress with 
that power, wh}^ should we be apprehensive of empowering it to enact 
laws authorizing the issue of treasury-notes to replace the bonds? 
The bonds — I cannot repeat it too often — are in the main just as 
much money as the bank-notes, and I object to them chiefly on the 
ground that they are so ruinously expensive on account of the cou- 
pons attached to them. It is far more dangerous to grant Congress 
the power to issue an unlimited amount of bonds, than to authorize it 
to issue more money upon the report of a hoard of commissioners, 
based upon carefully gathered statistics and well-prepared tables, 
showing the progressive ratio for the increase of the absolute money 
required by the extent of trade, bills of exchange, money of account, 
commerce, and the annual products. 

5. I may add, in conclusion, that a further check against both 
over-issuing and counterfeiting can be found in adopting the rule of 
the Bank of England, to cancel its notes as they are presented and 
issue new notes in their place. Of course, this rule would have to be 
modified somewhat, to suit the characteristics of an absolute money. 



198 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



CHAP TEE VII. 

FOUSIGN EXCHANGES AND AN INTEENATIONAL CLEAEING-HOUSE. 

The other objection alluded to as raised against such irredeemable 
paper money is, that it would check all foreign commerce, since 
foreign countries would not recognize it. 

To this objection I reply: First. That the citizens of foreign coun- 
tries do recognize our paper money. They bought and buy our 
bonds, knowing that with these bonds they could bu}^ any purchas- 
able commodity in the United States, and would not have bought 
them had they not known and believed this. The outrageous dis- 
count we paid them for taking them was simply a swindle imposed on 
our own people by ourselves. Second. The interchange between our 
markets and those of foreign countries is regulated in the main by 
the imports and exports, by exchange from other countries, etc. 
Silver is even at this day already almost altogether an article of 
merchandise, and gold will very soon be one also if governments ex- 
ercise their power to make paper money and exchange. With only 
one kind of money in the State, the price of those articles of mer- 
chandise, gold and silver, will regulate itself just as that of all other 
articles of merchandise does. The European capitalist will, for in- 
stance, just as soon hoard one thousand dollars of United States 
paper money as one thousand dollars' worth of gold, when he knows 
for a certainty that it will buy him the same amount of wheat, or 
lands, or cotton ; and the chances of a fall or rise in the price of gold 
he will take just as readily as he takes the chances of the rise or fall 
in other products. 

In the course of time it will, no doubt, be feasible to arrange 
treaties with all civilized foreign countries regulating the value and 
standard of money, and thereby to allay altogether this spectre of 
foreign exchange, under pretext of which the people are imposed 
upon in every direction by money-monopolies. The superstitious 
notions concerning the god of Mammon, as represented by gold and 
silver, must be swept away, even like all other superstitions handed 
down to us by preceding generations. 

To state this feasibility in the concisest way : it is quite as prac- 
ticable to establish an international clearing-house as it has been 
found practicable to establish clearing-houses in every large city. In 



MONEY. 199 

this international clearing-house the paper moneys or drafts of each 
separate State in the world would be sent for exchange, as such ex- 
change may be wanted ; and rules could easily be arranged between 
the several nations composing this international clearing-house, con- 
cerning the way in which the balances should be settled or adjusted. 
An international code and judicial department for the administra- 
tion of international justice would, moreover, greatly aid the clearing- 
house in effecting these measures. 

Situated as our country is, in the most favorable geographical 
position, between the two great oceans of the world, the developed 
civihzation of Europe on the east and the wealth of Asia on the _ 
west; connected already with the one continent by several lines of 
telegraphic cable, and undoubtedly soon to be connected in like 
manner with the East Indies, China, and Japan ; exhibiting a wealth 
many million times in excess of our outstanding circulation, and a 
productiveness in all articles of commerce which, under the exercise 
of judicious economy, is amply sufficient to balance our imports by 
our exports, and having the capacity of establishing a commercial 
marine that can control the commerce of. the two oceans: no other 
nation is so able and competent to introduce the purely rational 
system of money herein developed, and be the first to reap its incal- 
culable blessings. 

Every citizen is most intimately concerned in aiding the govern- 
ment to establish and perfect this monetary system, and thereby to 
strike the shackles of the money-power from our arms, and to 
keep the generations that shall succeed us free from them. Tlie 
conflicts between capital and labor that harass us, the exorbitant 
rates of interest, the sudden changes of value that plunge so many 
from wealth into poverty, and the spread of pauperism, which looms 
up threateningly for the future : all find their permanent remedy on]y 
in the establishment of a system of money that shall be under the 
control of the government, instead of self-interested monopolies^ 
that are gradually a,bsorbing the wealth and liberties of the people. 



200 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

POSTAL SAVINGS-BANKS. 

In connection with this question of foreign exchange, I may say- 
also, that the government should establish savings-hanks in the post- 
offices, the deposits therein being guaranteed by the United States, 
and its exchanges or money-orders to be current, not only all over 
the Union, but over all the countries joining the postal union estab- 
lished by the Geneva postal congress before alluded to. It will be 
seen at once what an effect such a measure would have towards the 
establishment of an international exchange business, the main point 
objected to my system of an absolute national money. With our 
greenbacks, men could buy their postal drafts at any post-office here, 
and this postal draft, or whatever it might be called hereafter, would 
pass current and be promptly paid throughout all the countries be- 
longing to the postal union. These drafts would amount to a very 
large sum per year, and the usual premium on them would pay double 
all the expenses of the mail service of the United States, and furnish 
domestic as well as foreign exchange at each of the thirty-seven thou- 
sand five hundred post-offices to all who might need it. No more 
beneficial financial arrangement could be devised for a perfectly safe 
exchange. In Great Britain this system, though as yet only local 
and in its infancy, has proved to be very safe and successful. When 
the government takes your savings on deposit, you will be very sure 
of getting them back. The dishonesty of many of the public officers 
and bankers will not affect this question of absolute security of the 
post-office deposits and exchanges ; for when the government becomes 
bankrupt, everj^ individual member of the nation is bankrupted. The 
whole plan rests, it is true, on the basis of cooperation ; but whereas 
all other previously devised cooperative associations are within, and 
subject to the regulations of a national government, the cooperation 
proposed by me is effected by that national government itself, and 
its success can rise or fall with that national govei'nment alone. 
Should our national existence ever be wiped out, of course all its 
cooperative features would also perish ; but can an}' better reason be 
advanced by which to induce every member of the cooperative nation- 
ality to risk his all for the maintenance of the national existence? 

To some extent this international money-exchange system has 



MONEY. 



201 



already been established throughout the States belonging to the 
postal union, which now includes nearlj^ all the States of Europe and 
America, all of Australia, and the greater part of Asia. That is, at 
any of the larger cifies in the States of that union you can buy a 
postal order for a limited amount, which may be cashed at an}^ other 
money post-office in the union. A postal order bought in St. Louis, 
for instance, will be paid in Paris, in Melbourne, in Vienna, or in 
Yeddo, and vice versa. At the end of every year there is a settle- 
rtient made of these money-orders between the several post-office de- 
partments of the union. In other words, the postal orders are then 
*' cleared." Now, this is precisely the idea put forward in the first 
edition of "Liberty and Law," seven years ago. 

As 3'et the sj^stem is but in its infancy, but what vast development 
it has ah-eady reached will appear from the following : — 

ForHhe fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, the post-office depart- 
ment of the United States issued postal orders in the sum of $85,- 
000,000. The domestic money postal-orders issued amounted to 
$81,442,364, the number of these orders being 5,613,117. 

The international postal orders — that branch of the business hav- 
ing but just gone into effect — amounted, in issue, to $2,047,696.86, 
• nd were drawn upon the following countries: — 



CountHes. 



On Canada . . . 
" Great Britain 
" Germany . . 
" Switzerland . 
" Italy .... 

Total . 



"fe'-s 



13,586 
55,346 
43,314 
4,593 
3,949 



120,788 



$259,382 43 
807,183 32 
783,416 34 
92,280 74 
105,433 53 



$2,047,696 86 



Ou the other hand, there were paid on international postal orders — 



Countries. 



To Canada . . . 
" Great Britain 
" Germany . 
■" Switzerland . 
" Italy .... 

Totar . 



4* 



20,134 

21,167 

29,411 

2,053 

281 



73,046 



$339,184 89 

363,203 IS 

666,812 70 

53,795 72 

7,871 42 



$1,430,367 91 



202 » LIBERTY AND LAW. 

Leaving the United States in debt to those countries at the end of 
that year $616,828.95, to be settled in the usual manner between the 
respective post-office departments of those countries. Tins certainly 
is a very encouraging exhibit for the first year's trial of this new sys- 
tem. But to perfect the scheme, postal savings-banks sliould be 
established over all the postal union, authorized to issue, in place of 
the present postal orders, drafts or bills of exchange, which would 
be honored throughout the whole postal union. This would deal the 
death-blow to that most extortionate of all self-created monopolies, 
the private banker's foreign exchange business. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

Let me, in conclusion, summailze the main advantages of such a 
system of absolute monej^ for the United States, as I have sketched 
in the foregoing, perhaps a little more at length than would t)e war- 
ranted by the general character of this work, were it not for the 
supreme importance of the money question in that period of human 
development upon which we are now entering : — 

1. It would unite the people of the United States by ties even 
sti'onger than those of historical tradition and nationality. 

2. It would at the same time abolish a dangerous centralization of 
financial power as it now exists in the Federal Congress, and restore 
absolute freedom of banking to the people of the several States. 

3. It would free .us from financial leading-strings of foreign coun- 
tries, and thus make us what now we merely pretend to be, — an 
altogether free and independent nation. 

4. It would extinguish our national debt and prevent the incurrence 
of any new public debt in the future. 

5. It would relieve us from the main burden of our taxation, — 
the interest on our bonds, — and thus make possible the abolition of 
the internal revenue and tariff systems, and the introduction of 
absolute free-trade. 

6. It would furnish us with a uniform and elastic legal- tender 
money, subject to no fluctuation or change of value, and yet accom- 
modating itself always to the requirements of the country. 

7. It would relieve the present insufficiency of our money circula- 
tion, and then lower the rate of interest and compel the employment 
of the money in aiding the development of our industries. 

8. It would abolish the cumbersome, expensive, and unstable specie 



MONEY. 203 

money, and substitute in its place the safest, most convenient, and 
economical money-medium possible. 

With all these advantages so clearly pleading in favor of the adop- 
tion of my S3^stem, may I not ask for it the thorough, impartial 
consideration of the people of this countr}^, of its bankers, and of 
ouY representatives in Congress, to whom the vast responsibiUty of 
deciding the future financial fate of this country', for weal or woe, 
has been intrusted? We are rapidly approaching the most mo- 
mentous crisis in the history of our internal development. A con- 
tinuance of our present uncertain money-system, with its utter 
instabihty and inadequateness for the needs of the country, is, how- 
ever, impossible. A change must take place. We need a financial 
constitution, if I may coin the phrase, as fixed and permanent as the 
political constitution which our ancestors made for us. We need it 
now, — at once ; and could a more fitting time for the inauguration 
of our financial freedom be conceived than the present? We have 
reestablished our political nationality on a wider and safer basis 
than that upon which it rested in the early days of our republic ; let 
us now also establish our financial nationality, and thus complete 
the work which was begun a hundred years ago by the mighty 
men of the American Revolution, in the spirit which animated them, 
and in the form which they pointed out for us. 



204 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



MOISTEY— APPEl^DIX. 



CHAPTER III. 

EELATION OF ABSOLUTE MONEY TO COm. 

[Erom "Absolute Money," a New System of National Einance. By Britton 
A. Hill. St. Louis. 1875.] 

It is my firm conviction, that if the United States government were 
to create such a paper-money system, and make it exclusively legal- 
tender in the United States, gold would soon lose its present fictitious 
value and fall below par in price, just as silver fell below par in Ger- 
many, when the government of the German Empire had stripped off 
from it its legal-tender prerogative. 

If this seems absurd to some of my readers, let them look at the 
financial condition of China or East India. Gold is not taken in 
either country as money ; indeed, six hundred millions of the civilized 
popnlation of the globe refuse to accept gold as money. Merchants, 
who took £20,000 in gold to the Bank of Calcutta in 1864, when 
money was scarce, could not get a single bank-note or rupee 
advanced upon it. "The price of gold sunk so low," says the 
Bombay 27mes of that year, "that it could have been reshiioped to 
London at three per cent profit." And simply for the reason, that 
gold was not a legal-tender in India. 

There can be no doubt that gold would soon share the same fate in 
the United States, if my scheme of absolute money were adopted. 
For, with such an actual national legal-tender money, of what use 
would gold be except in the arts, and, in part, for foreign exchange? 
It is estimated that there are about $300,000,000 of gold coin now 
in the United States, hoarded in stockings, bank-safes, and the 
Federal treasury. It is true that for awhile after the passage of an 
act creating absolute mone}^, coin might still be hoarded ; but as the 



MONEY APPENDIX. 205 

government would not need to be in any hurry to purchase it for the 
payment of its gold obligations, the hoarders of coin would soon tire 
of hoarding, and make use of the much handier and uufluctuable 
legal-tender money of the government. 

There would be absolutely no use for "redemption" of legal- 
tender in coin, and hence no demand for it. It is true, that so long 
as the paper money of this country was issued by private banks 
and bankers, and was not a legal tender, there had to be a sort of 
redemption, since the paper monej^ itself neither had nor pretended 
to have any value of its own. It was a mere promise to pay a certain 
quantity of gold or silver upon its presentation, — a negotiable note, 
in fact, which, like all other negotiable notes, rose and fell in price 
in the market according to the supposed ability of the issuer of the 
note to redeem his promise. 

But this absolute money of mine could not so rise and fall ; it 
being not redeemable in specie, or indeed in any specific other 
thing, though at the same time " redeemable " in, or rather receivable 
for and convertible into all the commodities of the nation, and the 
exclusive legal tender for all payments, salaries, judgments, fines, 
and debts. Redeemability in coin would only cripple it within the 
limits of the coin to be had ; but its absolute legal-tender convert- 
ibility and receivability for all payments would place it wholly 
beyond the reach of panics and the disasters attendant upon the 
fluctuation of the prices under a money-medium redeemable in coin. 

Private persons and pi'ivate corporations are not able to guaranty 
their issues of money, so as to make them absolute and sovereign. 
Only governments can do this. Only a government can issue a 
money that, representing the sovereignty and wealth of a whole 
nation, and known to the law as the only legal-tender and money- 
measure, can purchase every article and property, or satisfy every 
claim and judgment in the country. ^ Metallic money would always- 



1 John C. Calhoun, one of the greatest American statesmen since the 
Revolutionary period, has stated these same propositions in so clear and 
emphatic a manner, in a speech in the United States Senate on the currency 
issue, that I cannot forbear quoting from him. He says : — 

" It appears to me, after bestowing the best reflection I can give the subject, 
that no convertible paper — that is, no paper whose credit rests on the promise 
to pay — is suitable for a currency. It is the form of credit proper in private 
transactions, between man and man, but not for a standard of value, to per- 



206 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

be vendible, but the national paper-money would never be vendible. 
Every other thing would be purchasable, but itself would never be 
purchasable. 

An able writer on this subject, Mr. M. E. Davis, who still clings, 
however, to the heresy of having two kinds of money, — interest- 
bearing 3.65 bonds and legal-tender notes, — expresses about the 
same idea in his pamphlet published in 1874, as follows : — 

"True money is not wealth, any more than the deed for a farm is 
the farm itself ; and there is no more use in having our money made 
of gold than in having our deeds drawn upon sheets of gold. Another 
common and erroneous idea is, that if we have paper money it must 
have a gold basis. That is not only unnecessary, but impossible ; 
and the effort to retain gold as money is highly destructive to the 
interests of industry. The material of money should have, as nearly 
as possible, no intrinsic value. We now have a government currency 
of about eight hundred millions, all paper. Suppose we could put 
into circulation two kundred millions gold coin, — and this is about the 
maximum we are able to circulate, — and suppose this would enable us 
to withdraw an equal amount of paper, and to keep temporarily (and 



form exchanges generally, wliicli constitutes the approximate function of 
money, or currency. No one can doubt but that the government credit is better 
than that of any bank, — more stable and more safe. Bank paper is cheap to 
those who make it, but clear, very clear to those who use it. On the other 
hand, the credit of the government, while it would greatly facilitate its financial 
operations, would cost nothing, or next to nothing, both to it and the people, 
and would, of course, add nothing to the cost of production, which would 
give every branch of our industries, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, 
as far as its circulation might extend, great advantages, both at home and 
abroad ; and I now undertake to affirm, and without the least fear that I can be 
answered, that a paper issued by government, with the simple promise to receive 
it for all its dues, would, to the extent it could circulate, form a perfect paper 
circulation, which could not be abused by the government ; that it would be as 
uniform in value as the metals themselves ; and I shall be able to prove that it 
is within the Constitution and powers of Congress to use such a paper in the 
management of its finances, according to the most rigid rule of construing the 
Constitution.'''' 

And Thomas Jefferson, one of the most prominent founders of the American 
system of federative government, in his letters to Mr. Eppis (volume 6 of 
his woi'ks), says: '■'■Treasury bills bottomed on taxes, bearing or not bearing 
interest, as may be found necessary, thrown into circulation, loill take the 
place of so much gold and silver. Bank paper must be suppressed, and the 
circulation restored to the nation, to whom it belongs.''^ 



MOMEY APPENDIX. 207 

it would only be temporarily) the remaining portion of paper on a 
par with gold, we should still have four hundred millions without a 
specie basis. We should then have ' resumed ; ' but as half our cur- 
rency would have no specie basis, how long should we continue 
resumption? With the power of the gold-gamblers on one side, and 
our immense foreign debt on the other, not a month ; and if these 
interests can ever decoy us into resumption until we have a gold 
dollar in hand for every note out, we shall have a repetition of 
days that will make ' Black Friday ' seem like sunshine." 

And again : — 

"Still many people cling to the idea that paper money must be 
redeemed by gold money. We cannot see why it should. Why 
change paper money into gold money, and then gold money into the 
things we buy? Why not change the paper mone}'^ itself into these 
things? Gold money is mainly good to exchange wealth. Green- 
backs will do the work as well. The stamp of our government gives 
to our paper money the power of gold money, so far as home trade 
is concerned." 

The practical benefits which result from having a national currency, 
not redeemable in specie, was strikingly illustrated at the time of 
the last great panic of 1873. If we had then had a specie basis, we 
should undoubtedly have witnessed a general rush of the holders 
of greenbacks upon the banks, — a rush that must of necessity have 
produced the suspension of all banks and bankers, and widespread 
ruin, distress, and bankruptcy. There would have been a state of 
affairs quite as disastrous as that of the year 1857, when we had the 
"gold basis," of which so much nonsense is written as constituting 
the only safe and wise financial basis for a money system. Did it 
save us then? On the contrary, in their mad frenzy to possess 
coin, the golden idol of the god Mammon, which the people had 
been taught to worship as the only safe value, the holders of cur- 
rency "made runs" upon every bank in the country, and conse- 
quently broke them all down. Did the "specie basis" save the 
German Empire when the great "crash" of Berlin and Vienna 
occurred, almost simultaneously with our own of 1873 ? Far from it. 
Suffering, as we undoubtedly are still, from the effects of our panic, 
that suffering has been confined to a limited sphere, — chiefly to our 
industrial interests, — and is already in part forgotten, although the 
increase of our annual products has been so great, that the volume of 



208 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

currency has become altogether too small for the transaction of the 
trade and business of the country. But in Germany, where the 
"specie basis" holds sway, the suffering in trade is rather increas- 
ing in intensity. Does a "specie basis" keep England free from 
monetary panics? By no means. It is an established fact, that such 
panics occur in England every ten years, and evei'y once in a while a 
mysterious and unaccountable drain for gold is going on at the Bank 
of England. 

And speaking of the Bank of England, the following historical 
account of its transactions since it first organization may here find a 
proper place : — 

"The Bank of England was originally chartered for ten years, in 
1696, and the charter has since been prolonged, by A^arious renewals, 
till August 1, 1879, and from that date subject to a year's notice. 
The loans made by the bank to the government were gradually 
increased, until, in 1800, they amounted to £14,686,800. The Bank 
of England is, and always has been, the government bank, trans- 
acting for it all the banking business of the nation, receiving the prod- 
uce of the taxes, loans, etc., and paying the interest of the public 
debt, the drafts of the treasury and other public departments, trans- 
ferring consols, etc. For this service the bank receives, exclusive 
of the use of the balances of the public money in its hands, about 
£95,000 a year. 

"Down to 1797 the bank always had paid its notes on demand. 
But in 1796 and the early part of 1797, owing to rumors of a French 
invasion, there was a run made on the bank, and it was feai-ed that a 
suspension was inevitable. In February, 1797, Mr. Pitt, apprehen- 
sive that he might not be able to obtain sufficient specie for foreign 
pajonents, in consequence of the low state of the bank reserve, pro- 
cured the issue of an order in council requiring the bank to suspend 
specie payments. The suspension lasted till 1819, and is known to 
writers on finance as ' the period of the bank restriction. ' The 
bank's notes, however, continued to circulate, and a committee of 
the House of Commons reported, soon after the suspension, that the 
bank was not merely possessed of the most ample funds to meet all 
its engagements, but that it had a surplus stock, after the deduction 
0-" all demands, of no less than £15,513,000. This report, and the 
fact that Bank of England notes became practically legal tender, 
kept them in circulation, although b}'^ 1800 they became depreciated, 



MONEY APPENDIX. 209 

partly in consequence of their own over-issue, but far more thi'ougli 
the over-issue of the paper of the countrj^ banks. By 1814 the 
notes of the bank had depreciated 25^ per cent. Where only £5 
notes had previously been issued, soon after suspending specie pa}^- 
ments the bank began putting out £1 notes, and the countr}^ banks 
joined in the race. 

"The panic of 1825 subjected the bank to a severe strain. All 
England had been possessed with a rage for speculation, such as a 
decade later demoralized the people of the United States. The pro- 
vincial bankers gave in to the infatuation, and made the most sudden 
and excessive additions to their advances. The currency was inflated, 
and there resulted a drain for gold on the Bank of England. In 
that year the directors allowed their stock of bullion to fall from 
£10,721,000 to £1,260,000. The result was a tremendous panic. 
The country banks of issue went down like rotten trees in a tornado ; 
in less than six weeks over seventy banks were prostrated, and a 
vacuum created in the currency that absorbed nearlj' £10,000,000 
of additional issues by the Bank of England. Parliament enacted 
that thereafter no note for less than £5 should be issued. This was 
a blow directed at the country bankers, who had been easily able to 
circulate their £1 notes. In the commercial crisis of 1837-9, the 
bank was forced to draw for £2,000,000 on the Bank of France ; and 
even after that aid, says Mr. Bagehot, the directors permitted their 
bullion, which was still the currency reserve as well as the banking 
reserve, to be reduced to £2,400,000. A gi-eat alarm pervaded so- 
ciety, and generated an eager controversy, out of which ultimately 
emerged the act of 1844. 

"This famous measure, familiarl}' known in the British finan- 
cial world as 'the act,' was devised by Sir Robert Peel. This law 
divided the Bank of England into two distinct departments, — an issue 
department and a banking department. The issue department issues 
nothing but notes, and can only put out £15,000,000 on government 
securities, and for all the rest of its notes it must have bullion de- 
posited. The issue department has no power to increase the currency 
in any other manner. It holds the stipulated amount of securities,. 
and for all the rest (as has been said) must have bullion in its vaults. 
'This,' says Bagehot, 'is the cast-iron system, the hard-and-fast line 
which opponents of the act say ruins us, and which the partisans of 
the act say saves us.' The act provided for a weekly statement of 

14 



210 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the business and issues of tlie bank, — a requirement whicli intelligent 
men feared would tend to create panics by revealing ' bank secrets.' 
The bank department receives from the issue department £15,000,000 
in currency, which amount is loaned or issued to the government, on 
which the bank receives three per cent interest. The bank, however, 
pays to the government £180,000 annually for the exclusive privilege 
of issue ; and the profit of the bank, after deducting the expense of 
management, is estimated at from £80,000 to £100,000 annually. 
The bullion and coin in the vaults of the issue department are not 
included in the reserves, and are not under the control of the bank- 
ing department. 

"Peel's act, dividing the bank into two distinct departments, has 
been suspended three times in order to allow the banking depart- 
ment to employ the coin and bullion of the issue department. In 
other words, the act has thrice been placed in abeyance to save the 
credit of the banking department. The redeemability of the notes, 
however, has never been questioned for a moment since the passage 
of the act. The suspensions occurred in 1847, 1857, and 1866. In 
1847 the reserve in the bank department had fallen to £1,994,000, in 
1857 to £1,462,000, and in 1866 to £3,000,000. 

"The Bank of England is the custodian of the reserves of the 
several London banks and private bankers. These deposited reserves 
are, for the most part, loaned out bj' the bank. Then, again, the 
reserves of the country banks, and of the Scotch and Irish bankers 
as well, are deposited with the great English banks, which, in their 
turn, keep their reserves at the Bank of England. Therefore the 
reserve in the banking department of the Bank of England is the 
banking reserve not only of the Bank of England but of all London, 
and not only only of all London but of all England, Ireland, and 
Scotland. The credit system of Great Britain depends upon the se- 
curity of the Bank of England. It is the apex of the inverted com- 
mercial pyramid. Mr. Bagehot says of the popular British faith in 
the soundness of the bank, that ' it is contrary to experience, and 
despising reason.' Undoubtedly in all three of the years of the sus- 
pension of Peel's act, the bank could, had it been called upon to do 
so, have ultimately paid its creditors in full ; but the creditors of a 
bank, especially of a great national bank, holding the reserves of 
hundreds of minor banks, want 'immediate and not postponed pay- 
ment. 



MOKE Y APPENDIX . 211 

*'The directors of the Bank of England are rich London mer- 
chants, whose stake in the bank is trifling in comparison with the rest 
of their wealth. They have not been bred to banking, and do not, in 
general, give the main power of their minds to it. There is no law 
compelling them to maintain an adeqnate reserve, and only the pres- 
sure of public opinion, as voiced by the great newspapers, keeps 
them conscious of their enormous responsibilities as managers of a 
powerful institution, the very pivot of Britain's vast monetary ma- 
chinery. The interest of the individual shareholders of the bank 
demands, of course, the largest possible dividends, and the more the 
reserve is diminished for employment in the loan market the greater 
will those dividends be. All around, the larger joint-stock banks are 
pa3nng far heavier dividends than are received by the shareholders of 
the Bank of England. It seems creditable to the sturdy good sense 
of Englishmen that the Bank of 'England has maintained its prestige 
for so many years." 

And now let Mr. R. H. Patterson, one of the foremost financiers 
of Great Britain, state the absurdity and destructiveness of keeping 
the financial prosperity of that immensely wealthy country dependent 
upon the presence in, or absence of a few millions of gold from the 
Bank of England, and show how all the m.oney panics that have 
visited Great Britaifi are traceable solely'' to this cause. After show- 
ing how the withdrawal of gold from the Bank of England is imme- 
diatel}' followed hj raising the rate of interest and curtailing dis- 
counts, and how the "golden base then begins to oscillate," until 
'•the greater oscillations are felt like the shocks of an earthquake," 
and terror and disaster are spread over the whole country, Mr. Pat- 
terson proceeds : — 

" Is there not something wrong here? Ought the presence or ab- 
sence of a few millions of gold to make the vast difference between 
national prosperity on the one hand, and national disaster and wide- 
spread suffering on the other? How will posterity speak of us, when 
it sees that we made the huge fabric of our national industry stand 
like an inverted pyramid, resting on a narrow apex formed of a 
chamberful of yellow dross? Will they not laugh at our folly, — our 
barbarism? When the usual supply of gold is temporarily dimin- 
ished, why should our usual credit-system be restricted in proportion, 
or totally suspended? Of what use is credit but to take the place of 
payments in coin ? Was it not for this purpose, and for this alone, 



212 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

that credit and paper-money were adopted? Why, then, not make use 
of our credit system as a means of compensating the temporary ab- 
sence of gold ? "Why not tide over the difficulty, instead of aggra- 
vating it, and so avoid the tremendous sufferings which are ever 
recurrent under our present system of monetary legislation." ^ 

With still greater emphasis and outspoken candor, he says, at page 
455 : — 

" Paper money during the last century served the purpose of sup- 
plementing the inadequate supply of gold money in ordinary times ^ 
what it must be made to do now is, to supplement that deficit also in 
extraordinary times, — or rather in times which, though once extra- 
ordinary, have now become common, or at least of steady recurrence. 
It was only in times of war that our fathers, the men of the past 
generation, found their currency system inadequate ; and at such, 
times they boldly altered it, as they did not choose to be strangled 
for the sake of a theory. But commerce has so greatly extended in 
our day, and so many nations now eagerly engage in it, that a drain of 
gold money, which formerly used only to occur in times of war, has 
become a steadily recurrent feature of our commercial history even in 
times of peace. Every ten years such drains (money crises) are 
becoming more certain in their occurrence, and more terribly severe 
in their consequences. They have become oi'dinary occurrences, 
and must be provided for in our ordinar}^ legislation. * « * 
There are various wa3^s in which this may be done, and it is of com- 
paratively little moment which of these be adopted. But let it be 
done." 

I am well aware, however, that these periodical panics that shake 
the financial world are generally attributed to other causes than that 
I have assigned, and than those which Mr. Patterson points out sa 
lucidly. 

There is, for instance, an old and current theory of finance, that 
so-called "over-issues" of bank-notes, being the chief cause of 
alleged "overtrading," and hence of the periodical drains for gold 
upon banks having a "specie basis," are the real causes of mone- 
tary panics ; but the remedy prescribed — to contract the bank issues 
of paper money whenever any drain is made for coin — always aggra- 
vates the disorder. 



1 Ecouomy of Capital, p. 169. 



MONEY APPENDIX. 213 

The only test applied by those theorists of the specie-basis school 
has always been : Is there a drain of gold upon the banks ? If so, 
it was held to be conclusive proof of over-issues and of overtrad- 
ing ; to stop which it was deemed necessary to punish ovei'-issuing 
and overtrading by raising the rate of interest, contracting bank 
discounts, and rapidly diminishing the volume of circulating bank- 
notes. 

This whole theor}'- is simply a fraud, — a scheme invented by 
money-kings to harass trade and speculate upon the ruin of traders and 
manufacturers. The scheme is founded upon the idea that coin is 
the only possible base for a paper-money circulation, and that re- 
demption in coin is absolutely essential to the validity and existence 
of paper money. Logically following their premises, those theorists 
argued further, that their specie-basis scheme was only to be carried 
out b}^ regulating the amount of bank-note issues by the amount of 
coin in the vaults of the bank. This was supposed to be a shrewd 
contrivance to protect the gold in the bank vaults from being with- 
drawn ; but, oddly enough, the carrying out of this policy inevitably 
led to still more extensive runs upon the banks by bill-holders and 
depositors, since money became in still greater demand as the banks 
contracted their issues, and revulsions and suspensions followed as 
the natural result. 

Ever since the adoption of paper money, by far the greater majority 
of the banks and bankers in all parts of the world have advocated and 
supported this false theory of finance, in order to perpetuate their 
power under the coin-despotism. Nearly all the monetary revulsions 
have been falsely charged to over-issues, overtrading, and over- 
importations, while the true cause of these monetary panics was to 
be found only in that false theory of finance which directly tended to 
produce them, and has in every case of its application brought a dearth 
of money upon traders and manufacturers. 

It never occurred to the directors of banks that a run for gold 
could be stopped by enlarging the money issues of the banks. Even 
the British Parliament, in 1844, committed the gross blunder of en- 
acting a statute that required the Bank of England to contract its 
bank-note circulation whenever a drain for gold commenced upon it. 
This was a solemn parliamentary recognition of that false theory of 
finance, and it brought on and aj,gravated the panics of 1847 and 
1857. The destructive force and terrible consequences of the panic 



214 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

of 1857 compelled Parliament to repeal the obnoxious act of 1844, 
so as to permit the Bank of England to issue bank-notes to prevent 
the run upon the bank for coin; and the repeal had the desired 
effect. 

It had been believed as an article of financial faith that no drain of 
gold would commence unless there had been an over-issue of bank 
currency, followed by overtrading, and a consequent depreciation of 
the value of the bank-currency issues. Acting upon this naive theory, 
the financiers of those days had but one common aim: to accumulate 
gold in the bank vaults and prevent the bill-holders and depositors 
from drawing it out. It was supposed that gold was the grand centre 
around which all financial operations — trade, commerce, and manu-' 
factures — revolved, and that without it financial chaos and ruin must 
set in. Hence all the bank acts and other schemes to protect gold in 
the bank vaults from removal, as the visible metallic centre of the 
world's finances. The innocent coin-worshippers never dreamed that 
any flaw could exist in their theory. They knew that gold was the 
beginning and the end of all financial operations, because they had 
received it as a sacred tradition from their ancestors. Holding, 
therefore, that gold must be kept in the vaults of the banks of issue, 
so as to support the issues and keep trade healthy and active, the 
general poUcy of all banks organized on a specie basis has been to 
contract the currency issue whenever, for any cause, a run was made 
upon the banks for gold. 

But this contraction of the bank issues, far from having the sup- 
posed effect, as I have already stated, has in all cases only aggra- 
vated the run upon the banks for gold, and forced on a suspension 
of specie payments. Why have the financiers of the world been 
struggling with this problem for a century without solving it? 

The obvious reason why panics occur in the monetary world is 
because the circulating medium becomes too small to carry on the 
trade of the world, which is rapidly increasing far beyond the rate of 
increase in money, and hence periodically causes a scarcity of money. 
When a scarcity of money begins to be manifest, the manufacturers 
and tradesmen immediately feel the pressing need of it, and seek to 
supply it for their trade from every money-channel open to them, and 
this necessity expands in every direction, until multitudes of people 
are simultaneously struggling in all directions to obtain money for 
immediate use. Everything, then, tends to increase the pressing 



MONEY APPENDIX. 215 

demand for money, while its volume is rapidly contracting. The 
people, driven by their great necessities, arising from this money 
dearth, go to the banks for relief. But the banks, being already well 
advised that money is scarce, — very scarce, — refuse to discount bills 
and issue their paper money. Then the pressure becomes greater 
than ever. And the banks now refuse even to renew the notes of 
their customers, hoping thus to draw in their circulation and save 
their gold. Then the people, in their desperation, start runs for 
gold upon the banks, and the result is general suspension, ruin, and 
bankruptcy. 

Indeed, as the trade and business of the world increases, the nar- 
rowness of the gold basis becomes steadily narrower, the scarcity of 
coin becomes greater, and the revulsions called "monetary earth- 
quakes" are more terrible. For, as the coin basis becomes more 
limited, in proportion to the gigantic advance of trade and manufac- 
tures, the money of account and bills of exchange must be enlarged 
to meet the demand. But, if the bank issues and credits are with- 
drawn, the immense volume of money of account and bills, that never 
have any specie basis, becomes wholly unmanageable, and trade is 
strangled for the want of any kind of money wherewith to carry oo 
its operations. Although it is well known, that there is much less 
than one per cent of coin-money engaged in carrying on trade, and 
that, in fact, not more than two per cent of coin exists in the whole 
civilized world to represent bank issues, bills, and money of account,, 
yet the majority of financiers pretend to believe, and perhaps do 
believe, that the trade, commerce, business, and manufactures of 
the world may be carried on upon a coin basis, which is simply im- 
possible. 

It seems to me, that this utter insufficiency of a pretended gold- 
basis, and the ruinous effects to which it gives rise periodically, have 
been now so clearly illustrated, both by theory and the experience of 
centuries, that no one, who is not wilfully blind, can refuse to ac- 
knowledge that the prosperity of mankind imperatively demands the 
abolition of specie as a basis for our money issues. The only safe 
money system is a national legal-tender currency, not based upon 
metallic coins, but upon all the manufactures, trade, and commodi- 
ties of the nation which issues it, supported by all that nation's 
sovereignty, wealth, and power. 



216 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



CHAPTEE V. 

A SPECIE BASIS NECESSAEILY A DELUSION. 

From all the foregoing, it is evident that the pretence of a specie 
basis for any kind of money of account is a mere fraud. ^ If such 
a basis were real, every bank of issue must have one million dollars 
of coin in its vaults for every million of its circulation. But this it 
cannot keep, or where would be the profit in issuing paper money to 
represent the coin ? Nay, the banks themselves confess that, at the 
very utmost, they keep only one-third of the amount of their circu- 
lation on hand in specie. Their " promise to pa}^" is, therefore, an 
acknowledged lie. But why then keep it up, especially as the only 
good which it does is to keep the mone}' market in constant agitation, 
and make uncertain all business transactions? 

It might be further suggested, in this connection, that there is 
another reason why gold and silver are unfit for the purposes of 
money. Not only are they merchandise, but a merchandise of great 
value, although subject to a great deterioration of that value through 
its mere use ; the loss by wear on gold coin circulating as money 



1 Mr. K. H. Patterson, in Ms work, "The Economy of Capital" (1865), 
estimates the amount of gold held by the banks in Great Britain at £20,000,000, 
of which the Bank of England holds £14,500,000, the Irish banks £2,000,000, 
and the Scottish banks £2,500,000. The deposits of those banks he estimates 
at £400,000,000. Hence the banks of Great Britain have only five per cent of 
their deposits on hand in gold. 

I may add, further, what will seem a paradox to the coin-worshippers, that 
the Avealthier a country gets, the less it cares about the possession of gold 
and silver. During the Ave years ending 1859-64, England received, accord- 
ing to Mr. Patterson, £140,000,000 of gold. Of tliis amount it exported 
£138,000,000, retaining, therefore, only £2,000,000 for home use. California 
and Australia have grown rapidly rich, — by what? Keeping their thousands 
of millions of dollars of gold at home? On the contrary, by shipping them 
off. Only the Eastern and barbarous nations, who make no progress in 
w^ealth and prosperity, hoard and accumulate specie ; the prosperous nations 
of the world get rid of it. 

The gold and silver mines of the United States have produced since 1848-9 
the sum of $1,640,000,000 of gold and silver, and yet Mr. Secretary Bris- 
tow, in his well-arranged report on the finances, of October, 1874 (p. 21), 
admits that we have only #166,000,000 of coin in the country. The balance, 
^1,480,000,000, has been exported to foreign markets. 



MOA'EY APPENDIX. 217 

being about three per cent per annum. A government coin of twenty 
dollars will, therefore, after the lapse of a few years, be no longer 
intrinsically worth twenty dollars, but perhaps only eighteen or fifteen 
dollars ; and as the proposition is, that it must weigh twenty dollars' 
worth of gold in order to be a legal tender for that amount, it has 
virtually ceased to be a legal tender by having ceased to be of full 
weight. And, to tell the truth, the people do not really care to have 
gold mone3% except when in cases of panics the specie spectre terri- 
fies them and renders them insane for the moment. Were there, in- 
deed, no other reason not to use gold as money, its mere weight and 
continual loss by use would make it objectionable. The moving of 
any considerable sum from one place to another would always neces- 
sitate a dray or wagon ; and who would keep a large sum of coin in 
his own house? Gold as a mone}^ medium, in short, has long since 
been dead ; it only requires now an official burial and certificate of 
death. 

To show how thoroughly this general insufficiency of a specie basis 
is understood by some of the ablest writers on the subject of finance, 
I quote from several of them. Mr. Charles Sears, a prominent polit- 
ical economist, says, in speaking of the inadequacy of a gold and 
silver money : — 

" Independently of circumstances, and on its merits, the specie- 
basis hypothesis is the most disorganizing element that ever obtained 
place in society. * * * Qn this hypothesis our monetary, indus- 
trial, and commercial systems constitute a huge pyramid, or cone, 
standing on its apex. Forty billions of propert}^ resting upon six 
billions of current production, which rests for its value upon, say, 
seven hundred millions of currency, which in turn for its value rests 
upon two hundred and fifty millions of specie, which, so far as our 
possession of it is concerned, depends upon the interest and good- 
will of our rivals in industry and haters of our political system. 
******* 

" Of course, on this system all people, in all times, have been insol- 
vent. Production and trade have been caiTied on upon sufferance. 
So long as confidence continued unimpaired, the movements of prop- 
ei'ty were kept up ; but the exigencies of the war, of local trade, and 
of the stock and money speculators, and the natural system itself 
requiring periodical settlement, demonstrate the general insolvency. 
"Within the last fifty years, say, a money crisis has come quite regu- 



218 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

larly eveiy ten years. Something — any one of a dozen causes, few 
know what — sets gold flowing out. Fifty millions withdrawn in a 
short time from their usual places of deposit is quite sufficient to 
make the whole volume of coin disappear from ordinar}^ circulation 
as completely as if it had never existed. The metallic basis is gone, — 
slipped out ; the pivot of the system is dislocated ; somebody wanted 
it, and took it; and the pyramid tumbles down, burying in its ruins 
three-fourths of a business generation." 

And Mr. Col well says : — 

"The remedy for these evils" — i.e., the insecurity of bank- 
notes — " which has been most relied on, is that of placing the banks 
under stringent obhgations to pay their currency on demand in specie. 
This would be a complete remedy, if compliance were possible ; but 
that is not the case, — far from it. It involves a stock of the precious 
metals in the country equal to the deposits and circulation of the 
banks, and applicable to this purpose by remaining in the banks, as a 
security for their issues. Security, absolute security, should be re- 
quired of the banks ; but it is surely an error to assume that the 
security must be gold or silver." ^ 

Mr. Patterson,' in speaking of the theory that the amount of cur- 
rency issued by a bank should always vary in amount as gold varies, 
illustrates the absurdity of that theory by the following brief state- 
ment, which I heartily recommend to the study of those of our Amer- 
ican financiers who have expressed a similar notion: — 

"For many years during the great war with Napoleon, especially 
from 1808 to 1815, there was hardl}^ a sovereign left in the country. 
* * * At such a time — and it may occur again — the supporters 
of the ' variation ' theory would have left nothing to vary. The gold 
being 0, the paper currency should also be ! To hold such a doc- 
trine is to bid defiance to common sense." ^ 

On page 282 of the same work he says, on the same subject : — 

" This theory of variation is briefl_y this: If much gold happens to 
be brought into the country, the note circulation is likely to be in- 
creased to a corresponding extent ; if gold is temporarily withdrawn 
from us, tlie note circulation also is proportionately diminished. If, 
owing to a temporary cause, all the gold available for monetary pur- 



Ways and Means of Payment, pp. 11, 12. 
The Economy of Capital, p. 200. 



MONEY APPENDIX. 219 

poses were sent abroad, all our paper money would likewise disap- 
pear, and the country be left without money of any kind. A more 
absurd theory was never propounded. If one kind of money fails 
us, we are upon no account to use any other. If metallic money 
fails us, we are -upon no account to use any other. This we are told 
to regard as a masterpiece of economical science ; this is the great 
discovery which our advances in civilization have revealed to us. 
* * * The gospel of monetary science now is, that when a coun- 
try does not want paper money, it ought to have a great supply of it ; 
and when it does require paper money, it shall have none. When a 
country has enough of specie, it ought to double its currency b_y issu- 
ing an equal amount of bank-notes ; and when there is no specie, 
there should likewise be no notes. Is it necessary to discuss such 
a theory? In order to be refuted, it only requires to be stated; in 
order to be rejected, it only needs to be understood. It is a theoret- 
ical monstrosity which common sense revolts against, — a burlesque 
of reason, which even the present generation will love to laugh at." 



CHAP TEE VI. 

THE TRUE BASIS OE ABSOLUTE MONEY. 

So much has been written, pro and con^ on these two subjects of 
a specie basis and a bond basis, that I will condense my views on it 
into two distinct propositions : — 

I. That the pretence of redemption in gold and silver — whether 
asserted by a government, or by a municipal or private corporation. — 
is of necessity a delusion and an absurdity. 

II. That the holder of an interest-bearing bond — whether issued 
by a government, or by any municipal or private corporation — is not 
a whit more "secured" than the holder of a non-interest-bearing 
legal- tender note of the same government or corporation. 

Now I propose that both of these bases, specie and bonds, shall 
be abohshed altogether, by making the national treasury of the nation 
the general bank of issue, and causing its exchange or money to be 
issued upon the only safe and sufficient "basis" conceivable: first 
for the payment of the national debt, and subsequently upon their 



220 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

own total trade, annual products, power, wealth, and sovereignty. 
The people will suppoi't the money that represents their own debts, 
and the power and wealth of their own country. Their money will 
not be "a promise to pay," but it will be the medium, and the 
only medium, wherewith to interchange all their commodities and 
transact all their business. 

Tliis absolute money, therefore, in the nation that issues it, will be 
redeemable not only in specie, — as ordinary bank-notes are, or rather 
pretend to be, since they never can be so fully redeemed, — but will 
be redeemable, or rather convertible into all the commodities of that 
nation, — into all its products, including gold and silver. No panics, 
no revulsions in trade can, therefore, affect it ; indeed, it will prevent 
all such panics and revulsions. The present annual" productions of 
the country amount in value to more than $15,000,000,000, of which 
$76,000,000 are in gold and silver. All these fifteen thousand millions 
of products would be, as it were, a security for that national money, 
since that money would always be a legal tender, and the only legal 
tender in the country, for the purchase of them ; and it must be 
further remembered, that every year swells the amount of our annual 
products in enormous proportions, and increases the security of this 
absolute money in a corresponding ratio. This is another reason 
why the gold basis is utterly unsuited for the transaction of modern 
trade and business. Not more than $350,000,000 of gold and silver 
money now exists in the United States, as a basis for our interstate 
business, and for our foreign exchanges in the yearl^^ interchange of 
our products and commodities. This amount of gold and silver 
mone}^ remains comparatively stationary, and hence is evidently alto- 
gether too narrow a basis to meet the requirements of our interstate 
commerce, and for the constant and rapid increase of our business 
transactions. Hence, I propose to substitute in its place a i*edemp- 
tion or conversion of the absolute mone}^ so large that it can never 
fail. It is in our $15,000,000,000 of annual products, and our foreign 
and interstate trade therein, and in all the other revenues and wealth 
of the people and the government, its public lands and its taxation, 
that we find the only basis large enough to support the amount of 
money needed by our country. 

These are the factors that will support and redeem, by perpetual 
conversion, the absolute national money; and what other redemption 
should it need? It is the exchange, conversion, and use of the 



MONEY APPENDIX. 221 

annual products that makes the absohite-money system necessary ; 
and what greater security can be conceived than its exclusive applica- 
bility for that exchange, use, and conversion? 

This money, besides, will be based upon the whole bonded debt 
of the people of the United States ; for the wliole of that debt will 
be redeemed by this money gradually, as I shall show more at length 
hereafter. This money will, therefore, represent in reality only the 
amount of the national debt now owing b}' all the citizens of this 
country. What is the use, then, of trying to redeem in gold and 
silver coin, and of thereby cancelling a money medium which repre- 
sents their own debts, and at the same time serves, in its function as 
a circulation, to carry on all their business operations and the de- 
velopment of all their industries on the safest and most practical 
basis? 

Each citizen being equally interested in the cooperative govern- 
ment of the United States, in proportion to his capital and industry, 
and bound to accept this money as the only legal tender of the nation, 
it is absurd to speak of an artificial and deceptive redemption in specie 
in connection with it. Each citizen at present owes his share of the 
public debt, and is bound to pay his portion of it out of his share of 
all the commodities and annual products of the country; and Con- 
gress has full power ,to make such payment legal, and bind all the 
citizens to liquidate the debt by taxing them. But Congress has 
also full power to liquidate the debt by substituting in its place an 
absolute national money, and bind the citizens to take it, by making- 
it the exclusive legal-tender of the country ; and I submit that, apart 
from all the other reasons advanced by me, the immense economy 
resulting from such a substitution of money for bonds drawing- 
interest ought alone to decide in its favor. 

Based thus upon all the products, commodities, the wealth, power, 
and sovereignty of the nation, this money would operute in repre- 
senting absolute value without any intrinsic value of its own, 
somewhat like an execution issued upon a judgment for the collec- 
tion of, say, $100,000 out of the propert}' of a defendant. This, as 
an instrument representing values, has no intrinsic value of itself. It 
is a piece of paper, with the seal of the court attached to it, and an 
order to the sheriff to levy upon the defendant's property and sell it, 
to make the amount out of it which is necessary to pay the plaintiff's 
judgment. The power of the execution and its value, in fact and in 



222 LIBEETY AND LAW. 

law, depends not upon the value of the material on which it is written 
or printed, but upon the available wealth of the defendant wherewith 
to pay or satisfy it, and the authority of the State within whose 
jurisdiction the writ is issued, to compel the enforcement of the 
process. The same governmental power that makes the execution so 
capable of representing value, gjyes the national money power to 
satisfy the execution. One piece of paper satisfies the other ; in 
this wa}^ the absolute money issued by the government would repre- 
sent all the available wealth, present and future, of the nation and 
each one of its taxable inhabitants. The advocates of a specie 
basis sneer at this proposition of a currency iri*edeemable in specie. 
But why call it irredeemable, when I propose that the government 
shall make it redeemable in all the commodities of the nation, re- 
ceivable for all salaries, debts, judgments, and taxes, duties and 
imposts, by constituting it the only legal-tender for all time to come? 
It seems to me, rather, that specie would be irredeemable, when once 
deprived of its legal-tender character. 

This is b}'' no means an exaggerated statement, put in here for 
antithetical effect. Gold, for instance, is not "redeemable" in the 
greater part of Asia. Silver, on the other hand, is not "redeemable" 
in Germany, and has even in England fallen nine per cent in price 
during the last three years. Germany has demonetized $800,000,000 
of silver coin, and is very anxious now to get rid of it at a consider- 
able discount. Belgium and Holland also evince a disposition to 
demonetize silver, and if they do there will be another $100,000,000 
thrown upon the market. But there is very little demand for it. 
Nobody wants the "precious metal" in Europe, strange as this may 
sound to our American specie-worshippers, who are always pointing 
to Europe as the country we should pattern after in financial affairs. 
The greatest demand for silver is in Asiatic countries, amongst the 
lower classes of the populations of Cliina and India. But the com- 
merce of those nations is so limited, that their requirements fall far 
short of the amount of silver put up for sale in the European market. 
England last year exported to the East and to Egypt £6,840,000, 
which is only some £3,000,000 in excess of her average annual export 
of silver to those countries. These £3,000,000, or $15,000,000, came 
from Germany ; but if the demand grows no larger, the price of sil- 
ver will probably fall still considerably below its present discount of 
nine per cent, especially as the supply of that metal from our mines 



MONEY — APPENDIX. 223 

ill Montana, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico is likely to 
increase constantly. 

And wh}' is silver not wanted by the people of Europe? Clearly 
not because the opening of new mines has produced an excess of 
money in Europe, as the specie-worshippers argue ; for if there were 
an excess of mone}' , the people would not increase their money circu- 
lation b}' issuing more paper money, as they do in every European 
country. Paper money is not at a discount in England, in France, 
or in Germany. It is onl}'" specie (silver) money which has depre- 
ciated in value. Let our specie-spouting financiers in the Federal 
Congress explain whj'^ we should reestablish as money a metal which 
has been demonetized in one of the largest countries of Europe, is 
now at a discount of nine per cent in London, and will, according to 
all appearances, continue to depreciate for a long time. " Redeem- 
abilit}^ " of our legal tender in (silver) specie would,, therefore, not 
onl}^ be a fraud, but it would be a downright swindle perpetrated 
upon the holders of the legal-tenders ; unless, indeed, all three kinds 
of money — the greenbacks, gold, and silver money — be placed on 
the same footing of perfect equality. 

The advocates of a specie basis also call a currency irredeemable 
in specie a forced loan. But the same term might apply to the gold 
and silver coins, which they propose to constitute the exclusive 
mone}' of the country. Besides, has not the check and draft system 
of our banks also the character of a forced loan? And ought the 
largest corporation of a country, the government itself, to be deprived 
of a privilege which it confers now upon the directors of every village 
bank which it charters? Is it not a downright absurdity that we 
should pay $20,000,000 in gold annually in interest to national banks, 
for giving them the privilege of issuing a currency upon the security 
of our government bonds, when the government itself could issue 
such a currency with equal security, and at a great saving to the 
people at large ? 

And is it not equally absurd to look upon the legal- tender notes of 
the national government as unsecured because they have no "specie 
basis," and at the same time to speak of the notes of the national 
banks as secured because they have a "bond basis?" The legal- 
tender note is a paper issue of the government of the United States, 
and so is the bond pledged for the redemption of the issue of the 



224 LIBEETY AND LAW. 

national banks. Is the bond, which bears interest, a better security 
than the legal tender, which bears no interest? I should say, rather 
the reverse ; and for the simple reason that the amount of the legal- 
tender notes does not increase by the accumulation of interest. It 
is gratifying, however, to notice that the minds of the people at 
large are gradually becoming convinced of the uselessness and expen- 
siveness of this national-banking system, and warrants the hope that 
they will also, in course of time, see the uselessness of the bond 
system, and the immense advantage of substituting in its place a 
pure legal-tender monej'-, large enough in volume to meet the require- 
ments of all the business, trade, and manufactures of this vast coun- 
try. That the people of the United States will ultimately establish 
such a money, I do not doubt in the least, since even some of our 
most eminent public men have already cast off their old superstitious 
faith in the almighty power of coin as money. Thus, the Hon, 
George Opd^'ke, who is not only distinguished as a political econ- 
omist, but also as a practical banker, defines money, not as gold and 
silver coin, or the representatives of coin, but as "an instrument of 
commerce designed to facilitate the exchange of all other commod- 
ities, by presenting an equivalent in a portable and convenient shape." 
And the Hon. O. S. Halsted, ex-chancellor of New Jersey, in quoting 
Mr. Opdyke's definition, in a letter to the Hon. John G. Drew, of 
Massachusetts, who also is a convert from the faith in coin almighti- 
ness, says : — 

"I am glad to be able to agree in Mr, Opdyke's definition of 
money. We hear it said nowadays that gold is mere merchandise. 
Gold-dust, ingots, and nuggets are merchandise, * * * ^^t gold 
coined by government is money. A government^ however^ can make 
money ^ of any material^ and of any shape and value it pleases. Our 
government has made what we call legal-tenders money, or instru- 
ments of commerce ; can it be said that those legal-tender notes are 
merchandise? One and the same thing cannot be both money and 
merchandise." 

In this place I may as well answer the objections which Mr, Patter- 
son raises in his work, "The Economy of Capital/' against such a 
S3'stem of national absolute money as I have proposed. The reader 



^ Opdyke's "Instrument of Commerce." 



MONEY APPENDIX. 225 

will have already seen, from the various quotations I have made from 
Mr. Patterson's excellent work, that in the main his views on finance 
agree entirely with mine. He holds, as I do, that the value assigned 
to gold as the exclusive money-medium, or, as Mr. Patterson phrases 
it, the "canonization" of gold, has its origin simply in fiction or 
superstition. . He holds, as I do, that it makes no difference at all 
whether the substance of which money is composed has any intrinsic 
value at all; "that gold, silver, copper, iron, shells, pieces of silk, 
cotton strips, stamped leather,. and stamped paper" have been used 
and are used in different parts of the world as money with equal 
success ; and that the one quality which gives the substances their 
circulating power as money is simplj^ "the agreement on the part of 
nations to recognize those substances as representatives of wealth." 
Mr. Patterson agrees with me, furthermore, that gold and silver are 
altogether unsuited and inadequate to carry on the trade, commerce, 
and enterprises of modern times ; unsuited, on account of their weight, 
their susceptibility to wear, and their great bulk ; inadequate, because 
the amount of gold and silver in the world would not be able to trans- 
act five per cent of the world's business, — not even the business of 
London alone. Mr. Patterson, therefore, agrees with me, that it is an 
absurdity, and productive of constant financial distresses, if the busi- 
ness of the world makes still the pretence of being carried on upon a 
specie basis ; especially as the banks, through whom the interchange 
of that business is effected, are constantly crippled by being supposed 
to operate upon a specie basis, which they demonstratively cannot do. 
He proposes, therefore, that paper money, which has hitherto been 
only a representative of gold money, should become a substitute for 
gold money, — the same proposition that I have made. 

But from this point on we differ. Whilst I propose that the paper 
money should be only of one kind and issued by the nation, guaran- 
teed by the annual products, trade, commerce, business, and all tlie 
power, wealth, and sovereignty of the nation, and made the exclusive 
legal-tender over the whole country, Mr. Patterson would have the 
issue of currency intrusted to a number of private banks, and leave 
it to the discretion of the bank directors and the confidence of the 
people how large such issue should be. But I will let Mr. Patterson 
speak for himself, both in regard to his argument against a national 
bank and in favor of private banks. Having alluded to our American 

15 



226 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

legal-tender issue, of which he speaks as in the nature of State bank 
issues, he says : i — 

"A State bank^ would unquestionably have certain advantages. 
Its notes being receivable in payment of taxes, and being issued on 
the security of government, would be made a legal tender throughout 
the kingdom. They would furnish an adequate currency for the 
whole internal trade and domestic requirements of the country. And 
thus, in great emergencies and exceptional times, these State notes 
would supply an adequate currency for the country, even if, owing 
to an absence of gold, they were temporarily inconvertible. Nay, 
more: by means of such a State currency, the precious metals, and 
the jliictuation inseparable from tliem^ could he dissociated from the 
currency, cnid their value looidd be measured in it like that of all other 
commodities. With such a currency, in fact, gold and silver would 
be bought and sold just like corn or coal, iron or cotton. 

"Attractive as such a currency system is, it is open to what we 
regard as a fatal objection. It is in the form of a State currency 
alone that the paper money of a country can be depreciated. The 
note issues of banks never cause the currency to become redundant, 
* * * for the banks of a country have no motive to diminish their 
profits hy unduly lowering the rate of discount ; and if there he no 
undue loioering of the rate of discount, there can be no undue expansion 
of the currency. The trading and industrial classes will not pay for 
more discounts than they want; and it is only by means of discount 
operations, and such like advances, that a bank can get its notes into 
circulation. But with a government the case is widely different. A 
government expends many millions of money every year, and all 
these payments can be made in its own notes. Any amount of paper 
money may thus he forced into circulation, tohether there is a demand 
fof it or not." 

Before proceeding to answer Mr. Patterson's objection to a 
"State (or national) bank," and his arguments in favor of pri- 
vate banks, I desire to call attention to a singular admission on- his 
part in favor of a " State bank," to which he attaches paramount 



1 The Economy of Capital, p. 343. 

'^ Whenever Mr. Patterson uses the term " State bank," let the American 
reader translate it, "Bank of the United States," as the States of our Union 
are not States within the European meaning of the word. 



MONEY APPENDIX. 227 

significance in various other parts of his book. He says that the 
fluctuations inseparable from a specie basis could be dissociated 
from a " State bank" currenc}^, and that the value of the precious 
metals would be measured in it like that of all other commodities. 
This means, of course, that such a "State" or national currency 
would be subject to no fluctuation whatever, — a proposition which I 
have conclusively demonstrated in previous parts of this work, — and 
that "no variations could take place in it as a measure of value," to 
use Mr. Patterson's own words. But this "variation" is precisely 
the main objection which he raises against the present money-system 
of Great Britain. He says: ^ " Far greater and infinitely more inju- 
rious to the community" than a change in other measures would 
be, "are the variations which at present take place in our measure 
of value. That measure" — the money-measure of the bank-notes 
issued on a specie basis — ■ "is constantly expanding and contracting 
in a manner that baffles all calculation. It varies sometimes even to 
the extent of a third or a fourth, — to the extent of twenty-five or 
even thirty per cent." By which he means that the expansion or 
contraction of the vohune of currency, which volume here he calls 
the measure of values, raises or lowers the price of commodities ; a 
pure assumption, as I shall show, and as Mr. Patterson elsewhere also 
admits, since the volume of currency or circulation has very little to 
do with the prices of things, unless it becomes so small as to paralyze 
or cripple trade. 

Now, Mr. Patterson supposes that this money-measure of Great 
Britain can be made far more uniform if the circulation of the country 
is so regulated as to avoid recurring scarcity or redundancy ; and 
since that circulation is composed of two factors, — specie and bank- 
notes, — his proposition is, that as specie is withdrawn, more notes 
should be issued to take its place and fulfil its functions, whilst if 
specie accumulates, notes should be withdrawn. But if there " is an 
extra demand for money," then an extra issue of notes should be 
made also ; since in that case the effect of such issue would be simply 
" to preserve the measure of value unchanged. "^ 

This would still give a sort of specie-basi% to the banking system 
of Great Britain, and hence would leave unremoved the diflftculty 



1 Economy of Capital, p. 286. 

2 Economy of Capital, p. 297. 



228 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

which the financiers of that kingdom have never been able to solve : , 
to organize a banking system upon a specie basis which would f lynish 
the people a permanently reliable " measure of value; " Mr. Patter- 
son himself admitting that no stable or fixed measure of value has 
ever existed in the United Kingdom since the oi'ganization of the 
Bank of England, in 1696. For, no matter how the withdrawal or 
accumulation of coin and the issue of bank-notes may be made to 
correspond with each other, two great factors will always act as dis- 
turbing elements and vary the "measure of value," namely: first, 
the growth of trade and enterprise : and, secondly, the increase of 
gold and silver money from the mines, — an increase that, during the 
past twenty-seven years, has reached the large sum of over 
$2,400,000,000, and during the operation of which the "measure of 
value " has become more uncertain than ever, and panics consequently 
more destructive. And it must further be taken into consideration, 
that this uncertain and constantly fluctuating increase of specie money 
is made still more variable by the wear of the precious metals. In 
gold, intrinsically the most worthless of all metals, this wear assumes- 
astonishing proportions. The gold-worshippers may find it rather 
hard to believe, but it has nevertheless been ascertained by careful 
calculations in various countries, that the gold coins of a country, in 
actual circulation, lose about one-hundredth part in value every year 
from mere wear. A thousand dollars of gold coins are thus reduced 
to zero within one hundred years; and the above $2,400,000,000' 
added to the world's metal money in the course of the last twenty- 
seven years have been already reduced by wear to about $1,752,- 
000,000. 

If Ml-. Patterson, however, really does not desire a specie basis, and 
proposes to bring permanency into the " measure of value " of Great 
Britain by leaving the issue of paper money solely to private banks, 
he will still less accomplish his object by that plan. And this leads 
me to the promised criticism of his system and its comparison with 
mine. 

If there is no governmental money in a country, — this is Mr. Patter- 
son's argument, — no government bank, in short, under the control of 
legislation, but if the issue of bank-notes is left entirely to private 
incorporated banks, unrestrained by law in any manner, and kept in 
check only by the demands, needs, and confidence of the people, 
then that country will have a perfect system of banking, and fluctua- 



MONEY APPENDIX. 229 

tion in the value of the " money-measure" will be next to impossible. 
The discount operations of these private banks will be, in Mr. P.'s 
opinion, the restraining element against excessive expansion; "since 
it is only by means of discount and such like advances that a bank 
<;an get its notes into circulation," and since "the trading and indus- 
trial classes will not pay for more discounts than they want." 

It were well if this were true, — if people would not borrow any 
more money than they needed ! If this were so, we should have less 
"enterprise " in the world, but also proportionately less bankruptcy and 
financial distress. But the whole history of finance proves rather the 
reverse, namely, that people will pay discount for all the money they 
€an get, no matter what kind of money it is. Whether a bank has a 
right to issue money, or whether by issuing it the bank endangers its 
financial position, the borrower does not stop to inquire ; all that he 
cares for is, that the money shall serve his immediate use. He wants 
to build a railroad, for instance, hundreds of miles away from the 
bank with which he negotiates his loan. The bank has no notes to 
spare just now ; but under Mr. Patterson's rule, that the loan would 
not be asked for if there were not an actual need of the money, the 
bank issues as many notes as the borrower desires. He builds his 
road and pays out the notes, which thus become scattered all over 
the country. What does he care whether the notes remain current 
or not? Suppose that the railroad enterprise turns out a failure be- 
fore he has repaid the bank its advance. Will not the bank bear the 
whole loss? And will not every bank, under the operation of such an 
unchecked system, be tempted to negotiate just such loans, and in 
such amounts as must necessarily drive them in the end into bank- 
ruptcy ? It is true that in Scotland a similar system has been ex- 
tremely successful. But Scotland is a small country, and its people 
are exception all}' prudent and honest. The experience of every 
country in the world where such unchecked issues of private bank- 
ing corporations have been tried, contradict the experience of Scot- 
land flagrantly. 

In this countr}^ we have had special facilities to become acquainted 
with the practical operation of Mr. P.'s banking scheme. A number 
of my readers will recollect the results that followed President Jack- 
son's breaking up of the United States Bank, and the removal of the 
Federal treasury-deposits to the State banks, which were precisely 
such private incorporated banks of issue and discount as the Scottish 



230 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

banks, that are Mr. P.'s ideal. From 1833 to 1837 the issues of 
those banljs and their discounts were so excessive, that a universal 
speculating mania set in, which was followed, as a matter of course, 
b\' a general suspension and financial depression, so terrible in its 
effects that it took the country full ten years to recover from it. 
On a still larger scale — in proportion as the settlement of the coun- 
try had enlarged and new States been added to the Union — was the 
panic of 1857. Again, every State had its countless numbers of 
banks of issue and discount, all of them practically unchecked in 
their operations ; for although the law required each bank to hold a 
certain proportion of their circulation in gold on hand in their vaults 
(in most of the States one-third), that regulation was virtuall}^ inop- 
erative. Supervision by the law, or by the banks themselves over 
each other, was in fact absolutely impossible, considering the num- 
ber of banks and their remote locations. The demand for discount 
was unlimited. Everywhere railroads were constructed, towns built, 
land bought and put in cultivation, manufactories started ; and 
nearly all this enterprise was carried on by money obtained from the 
banks, who never thought of " lowering their rate of discount" as 
thej^ increased their circulation, — as Mr. P. seems to think must be 
the effect of expansion, — but, on the contrary, were generally enabled 
to raise their rate of discount in the face of this universal demand for 
money. Suddenly a small storm-cloud of distrust arose in New York, 
owing to the suspension of a large bank, the Ohio Life and Trust 
Company, and spread with the speed of lightning over the whole 
countr}^, letting loose all the fury and violence of a money hurricane. 
Every bank was forced to suspend, the greatest number forever. It 
is true, that the more cautious and stronger banks of New York City 
and Boston, although obliged to suspend temporarily, were able to 
come out right again after the first violence of the storm had passed 
over, and that the circulation of those banks never depreciated ; but 
the number of incautious banks was incomparably larger. Nor can^ 
I conceive by what methods and regulations the imprudent, excessive 
issue of circulation and discounts which brought on the panic of 
1857 can be prevented, especiall^^ where the number of banks is so 
large, and where the}' are scattered over so extensive a tei-ritory as 
the United States. I do not mean to say that the amount of money 
put forth by those banks in 1857 was larger than the country needed 
at the time ; likely enough, it was not even sufficient. But as that 



MONEY APPENDIX. 231 

paper money was issued by private banking corporations, it bad 
necessarily a "redeemable basis," — wbich at that time was a specie 
basis, — and this was the real cause of the runs on the banks and the 
consequent suspensions. Had those banks been national banks or 
private banks, using for their circulation national legal-tender notes 
irredeemable in specie, but convertible into all the products of trade 
and industry in the nation, there would have been no runs and no 
suspensions, even if the circulating medium had been twice as large. 
This has been shown by the panic of 1873, when there was no run to 
speak of upon national banks for the redemption of their notes in 
legal-tender money, and when gold was lower in price than it had 
ever been since the outbreak of the war, or has ever been since. 

And this brings me — having shown Mr. Patterson's argument in 
favor of private banks to rest on a false presupposition — to meet his 
objection against a national money-system such as I liave proposed 
in this work ; for he has onl}' one objection to such a money, though 
he admits its advantages to be numerous and great. He admits that 
an absolute national money-system would furnish " an adequate cur- 
rency for the whole trade and domestic requirements of the country ; " 
adequate even "in great emergencies and exceptional times," and 
even "if they were temporarily convertible into specie." Nay, he 
admits that such a State or national currency would put an end to 
the fluctuations arising from a specie basis, and thus achieve the 
greatest of all financial desiderata, — an unchangeable measure of 
values. 

And what is the one objection which, in Mr. P.'s opinion, outweighs-; 
all these admitted and inestimable blessings? Because "it is ini. 
the form of a State [national] currency alone that the paper money 
of a country can be depreciated." Why? The answer shows the 
weakness of Mr. Patterson's objection most clearly. Because "a 
government expends many millions of money every year, and all 
these payments can be made in its own notes." As if every govern- 
ment did not possess this right to issue bonds, notes, or any other 
kind of pledges to meet financial emergencies, no matter whetlier 
there are private banks of issue in existence or not! That power of 
a government, therefore, which Mr. Patterson considers the only 
objection to a national money-issue, namely, the power to increase 
its money or debts by new issues for either annual or extraordinary 
expenses, cannot be taken away from a government at all, being 



232 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

inherent in its sovereignty. Hence, so far as that objection is con- 
cerned, it is altogether indiffei"ent whether a government is always 
the exclusive issuer of bank-notes for a country, or whether it leaves 
such issue to private banks during ordinary times, and resorts to 
issues of its own only during extraordinary times. In truth, Mr. 
Patterson himself, in other parts of his work,^ seems to suggest that 
government, or " ordinarj^ legislation," as he says, ought to exercise 
that power in extraordinarj'^ times, namely, the power of increasing the 
money circulation of the country. Or else, what does he mean when 
he congratulates Great Britain that " a great war and serious neces- 
sities of the State" forced the government to introduce the bless- 
ings of paper mone3^ into that country, and expresses a belief that 
"another great war and pressure of State necessities" would do 
away with the last "errors of the bullionist theory;" which can 
only mean, in the connection, that it would end in the abolition of a 
specie basis, and in the issue of more money, directly and indirectly, 
through the government. What Mr. Patterson says of the French 
assignats, and other national-money schemes of the past, I have con- 
troverted elsewhere ; but when he cites our greenbacks in the same 
categor_y, he is essentially mistaken. The strict truth is, that our 
greenbacks have never been a depreciated currency; that is- to say, 
the price' of all commodities, with the exception of gold and silver, 
has remained prett}^ well stationary during all the issue of green- 
backs. The few things that rose in value beyond the ordinary rate 
were chiefly war necessaries ; but then numberless other things fell 
in price for some time. I need merely allude to real estate in most 
parts of the country. 

Greenbacks had, therefore, not depreciated. But it has become 
the fashion of late to state, as an axiom which no man would dare to 
dispute, that it was not gold which was at a premium here, but our 
greenbacks which were at a discount. That this axiom is utterly 
false, appears from what I have just said. If greenbacks were at a 
discount, the price of all commodities would be raised in proportion 
to the discount. But it is a notorious fact, that it was and is only 
gold and silver upon which the price has been raised. Though gold 
was quoted at fifty per cent premium, as against greenbacks, in Wall 
Street on one day, and at two hundred per cent premium a few days 



See, especiall}^, pp. 455, 456. 



MONEY — APPENDIX. 233 

after, the price in greenbacks of lands, houses, rents, groceries, 
nearly all the chy goods, etc., remained quietly the same. The cur- 
rency, therefore, was not depreciated, but gold was, through the 
agency of coin and stock gambling, at a premium. So was gun- 
powder and labor ; so were cannons and cannon-balls ; and these 
were real premiums produced by the stern demands of war. 

If that sort of argumentation held good, that our currenc}'^ depre- 
ciated during the war, because Wall Street speculation, of the wildest, 
most unsubstantial kind, sent the price of gold up to two hundred 
and sevent3^-five per cent premium for a short time, what must we say 
of the depreciation which gold- suffered in England during the same 
period ; since the price of cotton rose in that country, from 1860 to 
1864, full four hundred per cent. As against cotton, the gold money 
of Great Britain had, therefore, depreciated considerably more than 
our legal-tender money had depreciated as against gold in Wall 
Street, with all the stock and coin gamblers to support it. And, 
what is more, the legal-tender depreciation here was merely a specu- 
lative affair, while the gold depreciation as against cotton in Great 
Britain was a grim neality, for awhile spreading fearful ruin over the 
manufacturing districts. The demand for cotton and gold in the 
respective localities regulated the price of each commodit}^, accord- 
ing to the laws of trade. 

But I go further, and deny Mr. Patterson's assumption, that under 
a well-regulated national-money sj^stem, like mine, the government 
would settle its payments in its own notes, and thus force "any 
amount of paper money into circulation." Its yearly payments 
would be settled by its yearly revenues, which by close calculation 
can always be made large enough to meet every contingency. Should 
there be a deficiency, however, I don't see why it would be more im- 
proper to supply it by an issue of treasury-notes than by an issue of 
bonds, as governments are now in the habit of doing. I am fully 
convinced, however, that a well-regulated system of annual statistics, 
and a carefully prepared report made by a board of commissioners, 
based upon those statistics, and stating the amount of additional 
money, if any, needed by the country, would render any extra 
issues unnecessarj^, except in the case of another war. 



234 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



PUBLIC HiaHWAYS. 



CHAPTEE I. 

THE NATURE OF HIGHWAYS. 

The State guarantees to each citizen full protection in the harmo- 
nious and fit enjoyment of all the faculties of his mind and body. In 
order to be able to make good this guarantee, the State must be able 
to have access to all citizens, and they with each other and with the 
State. The right of the State to have such access constitutes its right 
and duty to lay out public highways and regulate the intercourse 
thereby established between its citizens. The State must, moreover, 
have the right of the speediest access to its citizens, for how could 
the State guarantee protection to each citizen if other citizens had 
speedier access to him? If the State had control only over common 
roads, while criminally aggressive citizens had control over railwa3^s, 
where would be the sovereign power? 

Furthermore, since in a well-regulated State each citizen has his 
specific vocation, and thus is dependent upon being able to have 
transmitted to him the productions of all other vocations which he 
stands in need of, the State must be in a position to govern all such 
transmission, and hence must have full control over all means of 
transmission or communication, of which there are at present three: 
those of postal, those of telegraphic, and those of commercial inter- 
communication. For in no otlier way could the State guarantee to 
each citizen his right to. all the products of othei's which are purchas- 
able, and which he, by his labors in his vocation, is able to purchase. 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 235 



CHAPTEE II. 

THE MAIL AND THE TELEGEAPH. 

For some inscrutable reason, the State has hitherto conceived it to 
be the duty of government to take control of only one species of 
intercommunication: that of letters. For this reason, government 
has established a post-office department, by means of which all its 
citizens are guaranteed the right of correspondence by written letter. 
At the same time, this department has selected chiefly one species of 
merchandise for governmental transmission : that of printed matter, 
though onl}^ to a limited extent. It is hard to say why, with the inven- 
tion of the telegrapli as a quicker mode of communication than that 
b}^ letter, government did not at once take control of it. The same 
principle underlies the telegraph as the mail : that it is the duty of 
the State to secure to each citizen sure communication with ever}^ 
other citizen in the quickest possible manner. To leave this matter 
to private corporations is unsafe, and leads to the establishment of 
monopolies, that are a constant oppression of the people and a per- 
manent danger to the State itself. 

In a well-organized government, therefore, the State itself will 
take possession of all lines of telegraph, and operate them exclusively 
for the benefit of the people ; and submarine lines of telegraph con- 
necting foreign States across oceans, gulfs, lakes, and bays should 
be put under the control of the two States thus connected, so that 
neither the people nor the government of those States may be depend- 
ent upon, and at the mercy of private monopolies. 

It is no easy task to make men realize the danger threatening from 
such an extraordinary monopoly as the telegraph system has grown 
to be in our country. Sure of the permanence of our republican in- 
stitutions, we allow these agencies of tyranny to grow up without 
check or hinderance, and to increase their power by consuming the 
lesser attempts at rivalry and competition in the simplest manner, — 
that is to sa}^ by buying them out. All European States, one after 
another, have found it necessary to take control of the telegraph, and 
in every case the result has been of the greatest advantage and profit 
to the people. Great Britain was the last one to take the control of 



236 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the telegraph from private monopoUes and exercise it solely for the 
advantage of the State at large ; and while under corporate manage- 
ment the telegraphic communications had increased only from six 
millions in 1860 to eight millions in 1868, which is an average annual 
increase of only fifteen per cent, under the management of the gov- 
ernment the business steadily increased at an annual average of thirty- 
three per cent. This extraordinaiy result was mainly due to the fact 
that when the British government took charge of all the telegraph 
lines, in 1870, it at once lowered the rates one-third. 

Private corporations are always very slow in reducing rates. If 
the mail business had been put into the hands of private express 
companies, the postal charges would still be at rates now long since 
abolished. But the government, being interested in no dividend ac- 
count, and making its calculations only on the basis of accommodat- 
ing the greatest number of people, without any other expense than 
the mere accommodation costs, acts on an entirely different principle, 
and accordingly invites additional business by lowering rates. We 
all know what an immense -increase of letter- writing followed the 
introduction of the present low rates of postage. Were government to 
take hold of the telegraph lines and reduce the rates as Great Britain 
has done, or Belgium, the business of the telegraph would doubtless 
quadruple in the course of two or three years. As it is, our rates of 
telegraphing are twice as high as the rates are in England, and three 
times as high as rates in Belgium ; and the result has been, that while 
the increase in the number of messages sent in Great Britain since 
1870 has been an average of thirty-three per cent per annum, the 
increase in our country has been only sixteen per cent. The people 
have a right to the speediest and cheapest mode of intercommunica- 
tion with each other, and it is the duty of the government to furnish 
it, and guarantee its accuracy and certainty. 

Still, it is not alone in this respect that the telegraph business needs 
the control of the government. It not only hinders intercommunica- 
tion under private management, but it has become one of the monop- 
olies that virtually rule the countty with despotic sway. Its growth 
into this power is a curious one, though the same phenomenon has 
been witnessed in ever}'^ other country that first allowed private coi-- 
porations to undertake enterprises that were peculiarly within iho 
riglit and duty of the State to establish. 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 237 

No sooner did the first telegraph between Washington and New 
York prove a success, than all over the country occurred a general 
pole- raising and -wire-stretching, wholly I'egardless of the immediate 
prospects of sufficient earnings to maintain the lines. In our usual 
style, we discounted the future most liberalh^, organized small com- 
panies in the various villages of the land, and looked on composedly 
as one after the other broke up, the larger ones feeding on the smaller 
awhile, then themselves swallowed b}'- the still larger ones, until only 
two were left to devour each other, — the Western Union, with the 
main business of the country from New York to San Francisco and 
over all the Northern States, and the American Telegraph Company, 
having lines in some Southern States and along the sea-coast. About 
the year 1858 the Western Union had reached the position of tele- 
graphic supremacy, and began its career of gloiy, power, and do- 
minion. 

Its capital was then $385,700. During the following eight years 
it declared, upon this insignificant capital-stock, dividends to the 
amount of $17,810,460, which, with the issue of some stock for other 
purposes, raised its capital in 1866 to $22,013,700. In other words, 
on its capital of $385,700 it paid duiing these years an annual aver- 
age cash and stock dividend of $2,745 922. 

With this enormous profit of eight years, it was now in a fair con- 
dition to swallow its only great rival, the American Telegraph 
Company, which had a capital of $3,833,100. This it paid them^ 
and a bonus of $8,000,000 of stock in the Western Union as a divi- 
dend. 

Then another small company, that had sprung up as a sort of 
blackmail competition with the Western Union, and which had con- 
structed a few thousand miles of almost worthless lines, had to be 
put out of the way. The Western Union paid $7,216,300 for these 
lines, and thus became then the exclusive telegraph company in the 
United States, having raised its capital from $385,700 in 1858 to 
$41,060,100 in 1870, on all of which watered-stock capital the people, 
who are compelled to use the wires, have to pay interest at the high 
rates asked for the transmission of messages. 

Since 1870 the telegraph business of the United States has in- 
creased fully one-half more, as will appear from the following 
tables : — 



238 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



The Telegraphs of the United States. 

The mileage of lines and wires, number of offices, and traffic of the Western Union 
Telegraph Company for each year, from June 30, 1866, to June 30, 1879. 



Tear. 


1 


i 
1 


1 


i 


t 


1 


1 


Si 


■« si 
II 


la. 


1866 


37,380 
46,270 
50.183 
52,099 
54,109 
56,032 
62,0:53 
65,757 
71,585 
72,883 
73,532 
76,955 
81,002 
82,987 


75,686 
85,291 
97,594 
104,584 
112,191 
121,151 
137,190 
154,472 
175,735 
179,496 
183,832 
194,323 
206,202 
211,566 


2,250 
. 2,565 
3,219 
3,607 
3,972 
4,606 
5,237 
5,740 
6,188 
6,565 
7,072 
7,500 
8,014 
8,534 










Cts. 


cts. 


Cts. 


1867 




5,879,282 

6,404,595 

7,934,933 

9,157,646 

10,646,077 

12,444,499 

14,456,832 

16,329,256 

17,153,710 

18,739,567 

21,158,941 

23,918,894 

25,070,106 


$6,568,925 
7,004,560 
7,316,918 
7,138;738 
7,637,449 
8,457,096 
9,.333,018 
9,262,657 
9,564,575 

10,034,986 
9,812,353 
9,861,355 

10,960,640 


$3,944,006 
4,-362,849 
4,568,117 
4,910,772 
5,104,787 
5,666,863 
6,575,056 
6,755,734 
6,335.415 
6,635,474 
6,672,225 
6,309,813 
6,160,200 


$2,624,920 
2,641,711 
2,748,801 
2,227,966 
2,532,662 
2,790,233 
2,757,963 
2,506,920 
3,229,158 
3,399,510 
3,140,128 
3,551,543 
4,800,440 








1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 


104.7 
89.3 
75.5 
69.5 
66.2 
62.5 
54.9 
54.0 
50.9 
43.6 
38.9 


63.4 
54.7 
51.2 
45.7 
43.8 
43.4 
39.5 
35.2 
33.5 
29.8 
25.0 


41.3 
34.6 
24.3 
23.8 
22.4 
19.1 
15.4 
18.8 
17.4 
13.8 
13.9 











There is to be added to the above the lines of the Atlantic and 
Pacific Telegraph Company, including in its system several railway 
telegraph connections within the United States, as follows, January 
1, 1879: — ' 

Miles of line 8,706 

Miles of wire 22,421 

No. of offices 223 

No. of messages 1,269,510 

Net earnings $265;566.74 

Besides the above, there are many new lines of telegraph which 
have complied with the Telegraph Act of 1866, and are operating 
wires with or without connection with railway companies. The fol- 
lowing embraces a few only of these, with their mileage : — 



American Rapid Telegraph Company, New York to Boston . . . 

American Union Telegraph Company of Indiana 

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Telegraph Company 

International Ocean Telegraph Company, New York (inland line) 
North- Western Telegraph Company of Kenosha, Wisconsin . . 



Miles of 
Line. 



250 

275 

1,304 

502 



Miles of 
Wire. 



3,367 
574 



In fact, the telegraph business in the United States has immeasur- 
ably outstripped that of an}^ other country in the world. It is nearly 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 



239 



four times as large as that of Austria-Hungary, of Germany, and of 
Great Britain; nearly three times as large as that of France, and 
nearly twice as large as that of Russia. The following table gives 
the exact figures for 1877 : — 

Telegraphs of the World in 1877. 



Countries. 



Argentine Kepublic . . 
Australia and Polynesia. 
Austria-Hungary . . . 

Belgium 

Bolivia 

Brazil 

Canada, Dominion of . . 

Chili 

Colombia 

Costa Kioa 

Denniarli 

Ecuador 

i^STl't 

France 

Oeniiany 

Great Britain and Ireland 

Greece 

Guatemala 






182 

65S 

2,934 

613 

15 

89 

830 

55 

36 

16 

178 

10 

78 

4,-l06 

5,109 

5,375 

_69 

42 



-a eo 03 

III 



Countries. 



India, British 

Italy 

Japan • 

Mexico 

Netherlands 

Norway 

Persia 

Peru 

Portugal 

Rouinania 

Russia 

Spain 

Sweden 

Switzerland 

Turkey 

United States of America 
Uruguay 






225 

1,408 
1 
194 
335 
197 
46 
25 
144 
165 

1,691 
264 
628 

1,053 
401 

8,829 



"^1 



1^ 



;S^ 



15,705 

45,557 

1,840 

5,760 

2,166 

4,827 

2,458 

608 

2,190 

2,487 

57,338 

7,510 

6,094 

4,015 

17,618 

94,714 

1,300 



But although we are so incomparably ahead of other countries in 
the extension of our telegraph lines, we do a comparatively small tele- 
graph business when we look at those countries where the telegraph 
has been put under government control, — England and Belgium, for 
instance, — and where the rates of messages have consequently been 
lowered. Thus, while we ought to send off forty million messages 
per annum in order to be on a par with Belgium, we send off only 
ten millions. Unable to afford such high rates as our companies ask, 
we use the telegraph only for the most important matters, and when 
it is positively unavoidable. It is simply despotism in this manner 
to levy so high a tax upon the people for their telegraph business, — 
a despotism which, were it in the nature of a direct tax, — a direct 
extortion, — would at once cause a revolt. 

Now, it has already been shown that the postal department of the 
United States is a vastly cheaper carrier of the mails than any private 
company could furnish. No express company would transmit the 
letters and papers forwarded through the United States post-office at 
less than three times the rates now charged ; nor should it be forgot- 
ten that the economical functions of a national government can attain 



240 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

international dimensions utterly bej^ond the reach of private corpora- 
tions. This has been most strikingly illustrated by the establishment 
of the postal union, before alluded to, b_y means of which letters can 
be sent from any one of the twenty-odd countries composing that 
union to any other, at the low rate of five cents for each half-ounce, — . 
a rate three times lower than it was before the establishment of the 
union, — while smaller messages can be sent by postal-card at a cost 
of only two cents. Newspaper and other mailable packages are for- 
warded at a proportionately low charge. Would any private express 
company undertake the transmission of mail-matter at such prices, 
say from Missouri to New Zealand or Japan ? Assuredly not. And 
the whole secret lies in this: that these private corporations must 
pay interest on their bonded indebtedness, and are anxious to declare 
heavy dividends for the benefit of their stockholders. 

But what I have here said about the mail applies equally to the tele- 
graphic communications. That also can be operated for the people 
vastly cheaper, safer, and speedier by the government than by private 
corporations ; and for the same simple reason : that the government 
conducts its business on the cooperative principle, for the benefit of 
the whole people, charging no more for its services than will pay ex- 
penses.^ 

But there are other considerations why the national government 
should assume control of the telegraph business of the republic. 
Firstly, as I propose the establishment of a State and national police 
system, it will become absoluteh^ necessary that the telegraphic com- 
munications between all parts of the republic should be controlled 
exclusively by the government, for the protection of its citizens 
against fraud and violence, and for the arrest of all guilty parties. 

At the same time, since the State itself will become the sole maker 
of money, leaving gold and silver, in their natural condition, to become 
mere articles of commerce, — in which condition they will soon sink 
down to their i-eal value, — the post and the telegraph will also become 
the means of regulating exchanges all over the country. This will 
have the effect of making exchange nearly par all over the United 



1 Practically, this has already been shown by the experience of England and 
Belgium. In both countries the telegraph lines have been put under govern- 
ment control, and the result has been that messages are transmitted now at 
one-third of the price formerly levied by private corporations, and with far 
greater speed and promptitude. 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 241 

States ; the slight expense which may occur in balancing the ex- 
changes, by the forwarding of actual money, going into the general 
expense account of this department, just the same as the pi'inting of 
the notes, etc. 

Ultimately, arrangements may also be made with foreign govern- 
ments to transfer exchanges in this manner, by post or telegraph,, 
through the international clearing-house. 

But besides the use government will make of the telegraph for its 
money and police affairs, it ought to have control over it for the use 
of its signal-service bureau, which is steadily extending its operations 
and observations into every nook and corner of the country. Again, 
it is absolutely necessary that the government should exercise that 
control for the sake of its military operations in times of war and 
pubUc disturbances. This is indeed so evident, that it only needs to 
be stated to be acknowledged. 

But there is yet another, and even worse feature of despotism about 
this telegraph monopoly,that absolutely demands the interference of 
the government. It is this : Being a vehicle of news, the telegraph 
has and exercises unchecked control over the press and over the pub- 
lication of news generally. So far as the news generally is concerned, 
it permits the controllers of the telegraph to speculate on all the 
political and commercial news that may affect the prices, — to with- 
hold, change, or even fabricate dispatches that may involve the for- 
tunes of thousands. No company, no set of men, should be intrusted 
with such wide-reaching power. 

So far as the newspapers of the country are concerned, they are 
absolutely at the mercy of this monopoly. If they murmur against 
it, up go the rates, which, to the newspaper, is the same as "off with 
its head." Insubordination is thus punished with instant death. 
And as, under my proposed system of government, a daily national 
newspaper is to be published, this is a further reason why the publi- 
cation and transmission of -wews should not be left to selfish private, 
corporations. 

Sooner or later this monopoly must come to an end, and we might, 
as well grapple with it at once. It is the prerogative and duty of the- 
government to take control of all the telegraph lines in the countiy, 
or build new ones, and operate them for the exclusive benefit of the; 
people at large. * 

16 



242 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



CHAPTEE III. 



PUBLIC KOADS. 



The division of our country everywhere into counties, townships, 
sections, etc., of regular figure, — rare instances excepted, — has 
itself regulated the laying out of highways and roads. Every road 
should be kept in constant repair and cleanliness, so that the traffic 
of commerce along the roads in wagons may suffer as little obstruc- 
tion as possible from the condition of the soil, and that the health of 
travellers and residents along the road may not be impaired by clouds 
of dust or the evaporation of stagnant mud-holes. The double lines 
of trees along each side of the road will materially contribute to the 
health and comfort of travellers, and at proper intervals fountains 
should be put up and places arranged for watering horses and droves 
of cattle. Every public highway should be put under the constant 
supervision of road-inspectors, who must have power to renaedy any 
defect occurring in the condition of the roads, from any cause what- 
ever, without the least dela}^ ; and the absurd custom of leaving the 
construction and repairing of roads to the more or less voluntary 
action of the adjoining landholders must be abolished in every State 
of the Union. Under this wretched system the adjoining farmers, 
acting under the influence of that vis inertke which is the bane of 
human nature, leave their roads for years in the same miserable con- 
dition, and one landlord after another will pass over a rotten 
bridge, or drive over a deep gully, at the risk of the necks of all who 
occupy his wagon, and of that wagon itself and the horses that draw 
it, rather than spend an hour in remedying the nuisance. He will 
kill off horse after horse rather than spend a httle money to make a 
decent dry road out of one which, throughout the year, has two and 
three feet of dry or wet mud, for the passage of his heavy grain- 
wagons. Hence the necessity of such government inspectors. They 
must have absolute power to engage paid laborers. They must order 
the making of bridges, durably built, and of a construction to har- 
monize with the landscape, wherever they shall be necessary, and 
keep them in constant repair. They must watch and protect the 
trees along the roads, and be clothed with sufficient police-power to 
enforce order on the highway. A system of telegraphic communi- 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 243 

cation must be kept up among these inspectors, so that the passage 
of an}'^ drove of cattle, etc., may be known along the road in time to 
provide against collisions, and for other contingencies. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CANALS. 



. Canals are artificial water-highways, the possibility of the construc- 
tion of which depends to a great extent upon the natural river-system 
of the State. Affording far cheaper transportation than railroads, 
their construction should be encouraged wherever the possibility is 
offered. Besides, they afford cheaper and speedier transit than the 
common roads. (In China, nearly all transit is conducted by means 
of canals ; the boats, however, being built with cabins so constructed 
as to make travel on them a luxury. ) They serve, moreover, • as 
natural ventilators in purifying the atmosphere, for water-power, for 
drainage of surface-water, and, in some measure, to irrigate the 
adjoining country. Being the absolute creation of the government, — 
unlike the rivers, — the government necessarily keeps exclusive con- 
trol of them, and allows no private monopoly to build them. How 
great a benefit a system of canals is to the people of a State is shown 
by the Erie Canal, in the State of New York, both directly as a means 
of transportation, and indirectly as furnishing a marvellous water- 
power for mills, manufactories, etc., — a power which cannot, in 
many instances, be replaced by any other. In still greater measure 
would their benefit appear in the Southern States, where the winter 
weather would not interfere with their continuous use ; though, 
for that matter, when frozen over, they make an excellent means 
of transit by means of skates and sleighs, as is shown in Holland. 
Besides, as the population of our country inci'eases, and the de- 
mand for cheap food grows more general, they might be stocked 
with fish, the cheapest and one of the healthiest articles of diet ; a 
fact which, I am glad to say, has of late years also been recognized 
in this country, and led to the stocking of many of our rivers with' 
various kinds of fish. In fact, canals serve so man}' purposes, that 
one can only wonder thej^ have not been more generally introduced 
in this country. 



244 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



CHAPTER V. 

EIVERS AND LAKES. 

Rivers and lakes constitute natural highways, the right to travel on 
which must be secured to every citizen. For tliis purpose it is abso- 
lutely necessary that the State should have full control over their 
navigation, and not leave the travelling public at the mercy of those 
who make that navigation their special business. No vessel should 
be allowed, therefore, to enter on this business unless it has beea 
inspected as to its condition and seaworthiness ; and such inspection 
should take place at stated regular periods. Special rules will have 
to be drawn up for all steam-vessels, so as to secure safety and health 
to the passengers ; the proper ventilation of all berths being an object 
especially to be looked to. For tliis purpose every vessel carrying 
passengers should register the number of passengers to which it is to 
be limited, and the inspectors will have to see that this rule is not 
infringed upon. Vessels for the cattle-trade must have special 
arrangements made for the health and cleanliness of the animals. 

Wherever any navigable river offers obstructions to navigation, it 
is the duty of the State to remove them, if at all practicable. The 
old notions of the State holding aloof from internal improvements 
originated mainly from the great extent of our country, then so 
thinly populated, which made the vast expenses of such improve- 
ments seem too burdensome. Thus, what was merely inexpedient for 
the time being, was formulated into a wrong principle ; and now that 
the inexpediency has ceased, the error in the principle has also been 
laid bare. It is a disgrace to human reason that such vast arteries- 
of commerce as the Mississippi and Missouri should continue to 
obstruct communication and endanger the safety of navigation, when 
a judicious system of improvements would place that whole body of 
water under rational control, and make it an obedient servant, instead 
of being, as now, an unruly one : full of snags, sawyers, sand-reefs, 
and other destructive impediments. The same holds good concern- 
ing all navigable rivers and lakes, harbors, gulfs, bays, seas, and 
oceans, whereof surveys should designate all reefs, rocks, and other 
dangers to navigation. 

It is by virtue of making these improvements, and of its obligation 
to secure to each citizen full protection against the oppressive tyranny 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 245 

of monopolies, that the State exercises the power of regulating com- 
merce and traffic upon rivers and lakes, not only by inspection of, and 
rules concerning the construction of their vessels, etc., but also by 
•establishing such laws as shall prevent the levying of oppressive tax- 
ation, in the shape of extravagant rates of freight and passage. For 
the same tendency to monopoly, and the establishment of powerful 
and unscrupulous corporations, which has directed the present organ- 
ization of our railroad sj'^stem has manifested, and must necessarily 
continue to manifest itself in our system of river and lake naviga- 
tion. Large, wealthy corporations are organized to build lines of 
steamers between certain points, and by buying up any threatened 
competing line that may be proposed, virtually control the whole com- 
merce between those points, levying whatever tax they please upon 
commerce and the travelling public. 

These rivers and lakes being natural highways, the State cannot 
assume exclusive control of the traffic and travel upon them. But 
the State is bound to protect its citizens against the oppressive des- 
potism of monopolies, 9.nd gains further authority to exercise this 
protection by undertaking the improvement of these rivers and lakes. 
******* 

It is true, that since the publication of the first edition of this work 
something has been done by the general government towards such 
improvements of our rivers and lakes, but not near enough ; and in 
one instance at least, on an utterly wrong basis. The rapids at 
Keokuk and the Upper Mississippi have been partially removed ; 
■dredge-boats have been built for clearing the Missouri, Mississippi, 
and other rivers of snags ; and a regular commission — working, how- 
ever, on an absurdly small appropriation — has been finally estab- 
lished to carry on these improvements permanently. 

But the most important river improvement as yet made is undoubt- 
edly the magnificent establishment of the jetty system at the mouth 
of the Mississippi, by Capt. James B. Eads, which has been crowned 
with remarkable success. 

For many years the great importance of the Mississippi River to 
the inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley, as affording them a direct 
water-communication with the Atlantic coast and foreign countries, 
has sunk into insignificance by reason of the mud deposits made at 
the mouth of its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico ; so that New 
Orleans had almost ce^ised to be a shipping port for large sea-going 



246 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

vessels, ana had become altogether inaccessible as a port of immigra- 
tion for vessels from Europe. 

When Capt. D. B. Hill, some forty years ago, proposed the general 
improvement of the river and its mouth, his contemporaries ridiculed 
the idea ; and when Capt. Eads, some five years ago, suggested the 
removal of the mud deposits at the mouth, upon the principle of the 
jetty system, as for a long time successfully operated at the mouths 
of the Danube, the gates to the Black Sea, and when he asked govern- 
mental support for his enterprise, there arose a wild outcry — especially 
in the East — against the project, as involving the government in an 
unconstitutional measure, adverse to the spirit of our institutions. 

In former times, when the Democratic party and the Whig party 
were fighting each other on this very subject of internal improve- 
ments, this outcry would not have been ineffective. But the doctrines 
advanced in "Liberty and Law" had already made themselves felt, 
to such an extent, that Congress was in a manner compelled by public 
opinion to lend government aid to the novel enterprise ; and as a con- 
sequence we have now direct water-communication between the vast 
system of the river valleys of the West through Eads's gates to the 
Gulf, and thence to the whole Atlantic coast of the United States, and 
to all foreign countries. 

But that which I condemn in the action of Congress in this matter 
is: that Congress did not take hold of the jetty project itself, but 
intrusted it to an individual, or rather to a corporation, allowing that 
individual or corporation to bear the responsibility of the execution 
as well as to reap its profits. It was the same stupid blunder, or 
corrupt villainy, by which our lands and franchises had been squan- 
dered on scheming railroad-incorporators and thievish members of the 
Credit Mobilier ring. It is for the government itself to carry out 
such enterprises, on the cooperative principles of a federative republic, 
for the benefit of the people, to secure a just equality of rights. 

Besides, that jetty system at the mouth of the Mississippi is of 
comparatively little moment, so long as the whole of that river as- 
well as the Missouri, — and, in a secondary order, the Ohio, Yellow- 
stone, Platte, Osage, Illinois, White, Cumberland, Arkansas, and 
Red Rivers, — from the highest point of navigation down to the jetties, 
have not been cleared of obstructions to navigation, so far as the high- 
est skill of engineering can improve them. But this can thoroughly 
be done only by the national government, and.it is a manifest absurd- 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 247 

ity to allow an individual or a private corporation to virtually control 
this whole river-improvement system, and reap most of the benefits 
to be derived from its execution, — besides subsidizing it, — by oper- 
ating the jetties at the entrance of all those rivers through the Missis- 
sippi into the ocean. 

All that has here been said of navigable rivers holds good also, of 
course, in regard to navigable lakes. 



CHAPTER VI. 



RAILKOADSo 



That upon which the life of man hanga as on a thread is time. All 
that he can secure of it for his oavu use and enjoyment is in that pro- 
portion his own individual and free life. Hence that proportion is 
his real wealth, and no common-sounding saying is more strictly, 
philosophically true than the adage that time is money. Time is the 
onl}^ money, the only really enjoyable money and wealth, and that 
which we commonly call money and wealth is only the representative 
of so much enjoyable time. To secure it to the majority of men in 
greater proportions than was possible in the past, the invention of 
man has been at all times busy to gain more time by substituting 
machiner}'' for labor, and for the quicker transportation of persons 
and property from one part of the world to another. The railway 
system of communication between one part of the country and all 
others has thus grown to be of transcendent importance to the wel- 
fare of the human race, and the harmonious and fit development of 
all the faculties of the minds and bodies of the people. 

The moneyed powers and monopolies, almost immediately after 
the discovery of this system of pubhc intercommunication, perceived 
the enormous advantages it would extend to any body of men apply- 
ing it in a well-populated State, and accordingly prepared to possess 
themselves of it ; the State looking passively on, or if active at all in 
the matter, applying its activity in the very worst manner, — that is> 
by extending aid gratuitously, in the way of money, credit, lands, etc., 
to these monopolies, in addition to the enormous privileges conferred 
upon them b}' their governmental charters granted by the States. 



248 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

The reason why the privileges of these railway monopolies are so 
enormous is this: that of the three elements which enter into the 
realization of wealth from its source, the soil, — which are : first, 
production from the soil ; second, manufacture of the productions 
for consumption ; and, third, transportation of the manufactured pro- 
ductions to the consumers, — the element of transportation has a 
double ratio: first, transportation from the producer to the manu- 
facturer ; and, second, from the manufacturer to the consumer. In 
addition to this double privilege, which enables transportation to 
make profits pn both trips, the same agency which transports freight 
can, in the case of railways, be made serviceable to transport pas- 
sengers. 

In this way it has become possible, that of the enormous annual 
revenue of the railroads in our country, which is now estimated at 
over $400,000,000, about seventy per cent is used for the expense of 
operating those roads, leaving a profit of about thirty per cent, or 
the enormous sum of $120,000,000 per annum on the invested cap- 
ital. The despotic and corruptive power derived from such vast 
sums of money-income is surely large enough to require all the 
checks and regulations that legislation can invent, if, indeed, it 
should not be altogether taken away from private corporations and 
placed under the immediate control of the State. It was the des- 
potic laying on of taxes by the kings and nobles of France, sucking 
the life-blood out of the people by their waste, extravagance, and 
•wars, which brought on that terrific revolution we still shudder to 
read about ; and the people of our own country cannot long consent 
to leave this kind of power in the hands of a few monopolies, exercis- 
ing it in charging undue rates on freight and passage, and furnishing 
insufficient accommodation, and accompanied as it is with vexatious 
delays, and often great injuries to persons and property. 

This oppression weighs all the more heavily when it is considered, 
that most of these railroads were built with the money of others than 
the men who now levy those taxes of freight and passage upon the 
people ; nay, to a great extent, with the money of the State itself. 
Companies have been organized with a large stock- account, which 
never was paid up, while roads were being built by these companies 
altogether upon a system of mortgages. In other words, a company 
of men organized under the laws of the State to do a certain thing, 
without subscribing a dollar to do it, and then, by trumpeting forth 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 249 

their enterprise to the world, fell to mortgaging it in proportion as the 
money raised by these mortgages paid for the building of the road. 
If the first mortgage did not suffice to build the road, as it seldom 
did, second and third mortgages were issued, or construction-bonds 
and equipment-bonds. If sufficient mortgages could not be sold to 
the people in a private way, the State was called upon to make the 
first loans, — which have seldom, in that case, been repaid, — or 
perhaps even to donate immense tracts of land ; while every town and 
county along the line of the road was solicited to make additional 
loans, secured by stock in -the railroad company, which became value- 
less when the mortgages were forfeited and foreclosed. 

Thus the sixteen hundred and thirty-seven miles of the two Pacific 
Railroads were built with a government subsidy. of $30,000 a mile, a 
mortgage indebtedness of .$30,000 a mile, ever so man}^ State, county, 
and city loans, and a great land-grant of twelve thousand eight hun- 
dred acres per mile along the line of the roads ; and yet these roads 
are owned and controlled b}' the shareholders of the $200,000,000 of 
stock that have been issued besides those mortgages, but were never 
paid up, and were distributed, in the main, on the Credit Mobilier 
system. 

It is these shareholders — who never built the road, who simply took 
other people's money, and making enormous profits out of the con- 
struction of the road, helped themselves, moreover, to as much so- 
called stock as they pleased — that levy annually, through the various 
railroads of the country, an enormous tax of hundreds of millions of 
dollars on the tratlc of those roads, besides continuing to enjoy the 
income of these vast grants of land that have made — to mention 
only one instance — the Northern Pacific Railroad the possessor of 
nearly fifty million acres of land ; five hundred and fifty times more 
than belong to the Duke of Buccleuch, the greatest land-owner in 
Great Britain. 

Furthermore, these shareholders are in most instances not those 
who projected the original enterprise. The original shares, having 
been made marketable by their possessors, became immediately a 
common article of barter, — owned to-day by this and to-morrow by 
that chque of selfish speculators. The temporary owners of the 
majority of the shares have no. permanent interest in the road itself, 
and their only temporary interest is to make as much as possible out 
of speculation in the shares. 



250 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

This leads, of course, to general neglect of the road, resulting in 
danger to the passengers, and causing those frightful raih-oad -disas- 
ters, that have been and continue to be the disgrace of our country, 
suggesting and rendering necessary the establishment of those acci- 
dent-insurance companies, wherein every traveller on a railroad nowa- 
days deems it his duty to invest for the benefit of his heirs before 
entering a car. It furthermore is productive of raising the rates of 
freight and passage far beyond the requirements of a fair percentage 
of profit on the actual original cost of the road. 

It is a matter of course, that every enterprise should, after the 
payment of all operating expenses, throw off a surplus suflficient to 
pay a fair interest on the capital invested, besides a legitimate per- 
centage for the risk run in investing it. But the managers of the 
railroad enterprises discovered, soon after their first opening, that, 
being in a position to dictate their own terms to the public, they 
could make far greater profits than were required by a fair remunera- 
tion for capital and risks. They declared dividends so large, that 
they astonished the community, who had to pay these dividends in 
the way of freight and passage rates. 

Naturally, the law-givers set about to reduce these extortions, and 
in a manner thereby to regulate freight and passage rates, by passing 
laws forbidding the monopolies to declare larger dividends than would 
constitute a very liberal remuneration, — say ten per cent. Bat the 
monopolies were more cunning than the law-givers, and the next time 
their coffers were overrunning from an excess over the ten per cent, 
took the overrun surplus and divided it among their shareholders in 
the shape of an addition to the capital stock. 

Thus was inaugurated that famous system of stock-watering, which 
has been of late carried to such great perfection in our country ; and 
on every dollar of such watered stock the public must continue to pa}'- 
additional taxes in the shape of freight and passage rates. It appears 
by this, immediately, what extraordinarily despotic power these monop- 
olies possess, and how utterly they disregard, by cunning manoeuvres, 
legislative enactments, — though even these they have now grown bold 
enough to disregard, supremely controlling them hj purchasing the 
law-makers beforehand. The Erie Railroad alone boasted, in the 
time of the Fisk-Gould rule, of spending $1,000,000 per annum in 
four different States for the purpose of buying the votes of men 
who would protect its road in the legislature against offensive enact- 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. . 251 

merits, and. of being able to control at any time twenty-five thousand 
votes. And yet the Erie controlled only seven hundred and seventy 
miles of railwaj^. 

To what extent this " stock- watering " has been carried, and con- 
sequently to what extent taxes are daily levied upon every passenger 
and shipper on the railroad, may be gathered from the following 
figures : — 

The Erie Railroad in 1862 had a total capital of bonds and debt 
amounting to $40,285,365. It increased it, within about ten years, 
to about $70,000,000. 

The New York Central and Hudson River Railroads in 1862 had a 
total capital of $67,575,039. It was increased to $104,661,216 
within less than ten years. 

The Pennsylvania Central Railroad in 1862 had a total capital of 
$13,724,100. It has been increased to over $40,000,000 within a 
decade. 

These are only three roads, but they represent the three greatest 
enterprises that control the railway commerce of our country. In 
the case of the Pennsylvania Central, the control extends over more 
than seven hundred miles of railway ; in the case of the Erie Rail- 
road, over seven hundred and seventy-three miles of railway ; and in 
the case of the New York Central, — combined as it is now under one 
management with thfe Hudson River and Harlem Railways, and, with 
control of the Lake Shore Road, uniting the great commercial metrop- 
olis of the North-West, Chicago, with the commercial metropolis of 
the country. New York, — over some two thousand one hundred and 
fifty miles of railroad, with an aggregate capital of $215,000,000, 
and an annual income of $45,000,000. Let it be remembered that 
this enormous power is now virtually wielded by one man : the same 
man, moreover, who has already control of the whole telegraph 
system of the United States, the Western Union, with a capital of 
some $43,000,000, and an annual income of probably about 
$3,000,000, and with an unlimited control of sixty-odd thousand 
miles of telegraphic communication. This one man has, therefore, 
absolute control over all telegraphic communication between the 
citizens of the United States and the most important part of their 
commercial railway communication. He can raise the prices of 
that communication — that is to say, can levy taxes upon the 
people who must make use of his railroad and his telegraph — to 



252 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

what extent he chooses; there is no redress at hand. If the legis- 
lature attempts to fix the minimum fare on his roads, he can arrange 
his trains for passengers so that there shall be only one ear, or 
perhaps two cars, on each train, ill-constructed, filthy, badly ven- 
tilated, and generally uncomfortable, to such a degree, that all the 
passengers feel compelled to enter the drawing-room cars that are 
attached to the same train, though they have to pay nearly fifty per 
cent additional to the legal fare. This same gentleman has now 
bought up the Union Pacific Railroad, and thereby extended his 
power over some sixteen hundred miles more of road. Necessarily 
the same system will follow, — the same stock- watering, and the same 
increase in the rates. The passengers and shippers of the New York 
Central Railroad, that in 1862 had to pay rates to meet the require- 
ments of dividends on a capital of only $15,000,000, had ten years 
later to pay rates to meet the requirements of dividends on a capital 
of $104,661,216; that is to say, the rates which they are made to 
pay ought to be only one-half of what they are. 

No government would dare to oppi-ess the people in the manner that 
this one monopol)^ does. The end is inevitable. Every railroad in 
the land must be appropriated by and put under the control of the 
government. The farmers of the West have already spoken with 
unmistakable tones in three State elections ; it will not be long before 
the whole nation will take up the same cry. 

It was once thought that competition would reduce the extortions 
of the railroad monopolies to a just rate, and that thus prices would 
regulate themselves, as from sheer inborn inertness men like to im- 
agine. But, far from being so regulated, it soon became appai-ent 
that the railroad monopolies were governed by cunning and selfish 
men, wise enough to take advantage of the indifference and inertness 
of their fellow-citizens. This they achieved by simply combining, or 
" pooling," — to use the slang phrase, — the competing lines. 

The origin and development of this " pooling " scheme is somewhat 
singular, and may deserve or require a short notice. 

In the year 1857, Albert Fink, a German engineer of great abihty, 
entered the service of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, having 
previouP/i\' been seven yeai's in the employ of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad, under the celebrated engineer, Benjamin H. Latrobe, the 
first engineer who made use of iron in the construction of bridges. 
Fink remained with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad from 1857 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 253- 

to 1875, rebuilding the bridges of the road as soon as they were 
destroyed by the armies of the civil wai-, and so distinguishing him- 
self, both as engineer and practical railroad-man, that as early as 
1865 he was appointed chief manager and superintendent of the road. 

As, in the course of time, money matters became more stringent, 
and economy, therefore, more necessary, even in railroad affairs, 
Fink bethought himself, that the main source of the ebb in the 
revenues of the railroads must lie in the competitive system, which 
forced the railroads to lower their rates to ruinous prices. The 
remedy lay close at hand. If, instead of competing, he could bring 
railroads to "pooUng," the whole difficulty was solved, — -at any 
rate, so far as the railroad corporations were concerned. The people 
might suffer from an increase of charges, but the railroads would 
greatly increase their profits. With this object in view he organized 
the "Southern Railroad and Steamboat Association," the first great 
" pool " established in the United States. 

Tired of a life of incessant labor, he, in 1877, was about to take a 
pleasure excursion to his old home in Germany, when in New York 
he was met by Mr. Vanderbilt, of the New York Central ; Mr. Jewett, 
of the Erie ; Mr. Thomas Scott, of the Pennsylvania Central ; and 
Mr. Garrett, of the Baltimore and Ohio, all of whom urged him 
to organize for their (Eastern) roads, as he had so successfully 
organized for the Southern roads. The result was the railway 
S3mdicate, that now has virtually taken from the people of the 
United States the right to regulate commerce between the several 
States. 

Of course, it was an expensive measure for the established lines, 
but better than ruin, — more especially as the people had to pay the 
expense by increased rates. If any new competing road was planned 
and undertaken, how quickly the road thereby endangered would buy 
it up, levying the payment of the purchase-money upon the travelling 
and commercial public! That it is still worse for the public if the 
State itself undertakes to establish this competition, the railroad his- 
tory of Massachusetts demonstrates in the most vivid manner in the 
cases of the Boston, Hartford, and Erie Railroad, and of the Hoosac 
Tunnel. The State cannot compete with monopolies grown so pow- 
erful as the railroads ; it must extinguish them, by compelling their 
transfer to the State. Self-preservation demands it, and justice will 
sanction it ; for nearly all of the great roads have been built by the 



254 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

lands and moneys furnished by the State or the people, and public 
policy requires that the government should control and direct their 
operations. 

Indeed, the extravagant land-grants extended to many of these 
railroad monopolies furnish a sufficient reason for the control of those 
roads b}' the government, and the necessity for it is continually 
increasing. To realize this fully, it should be known, that of the one 
thousand eight hundred and thirty-five million acres of land consti- 
tuting the United States and Territories, nearly one-fourth is owned 
by railroad monopolies, — an extent of territory larger than France, 
Spain, Italy, and Great Britain together, — while the general reserva- 
tion for schools to educate ten million scholars was only one-thirty- 
sixth part of the public lands. All these lands have been given away 
to build railroads, that by building at double cost, — making the 
average mile cost from $60,000 to $80,000, instead of from $30,000 
to $50,000 per mile, which is the fair legitimate price, — levy for all 
fu.ture time upon the traffic of the roads taxes to pay the interest on 
the additional $30,000 per mile, and interest besides on the hundreds 
of millions of dollars of stock that have been issued as a further fraud. 
That is to say, the men who proposed to build the road in a fair 
wa}"-, which would have averaged a cost of about $30,000 to $50,000 
a mile, organized themselves into another compan^T-, — Credit Mobi- 
lier, or Construction Company, or whatever the chosen name might 
be, — and now built the road at an exorbitant rate of, say, $60,000 to 
$80,000 per mile, dividing the immense profit of this construction- 
account among themselves and their friends, beeides dividing in a 
simikir manner the fictitious stock which they had caused to be 
issued. 

By those land-grants the lands belonging to the people of the 
United States have been given away in such vast proportions, that one 
of the largest beneficiaries, the Northern Pacific Railroad, in its circu- 
lar put forth to induce European capitalists to advance money for the 
construction of the road, had the boldness therein to state: "These 
lands," — the fort3^-seven million three hundred and sixty thousand 
acres of the Northern Pacific land-grant, — " when the road shall be 
built and the business fairly started, excluding town and station sites, 
would certainly average $10 per acre, making the sum of $473,600,000. 
Supposing the construction of the road should cost $60,000 per mile, 
the entire cost at this rate would be $120,000,000, leaving to the 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 255 



shareholdei's an excess of clear profit from the lands alone of 
600,000." 

That is to sa}^, the Congress of the United States had given to this 
one corpoi'ation $353,600,000 of estimated profit for building a road 
which that corporation did not advance a single dollar to build, bor- 
rowing all the mone}^ required, in advance, on the lands thus stolen 
from the people. That corporation took no risk, a guaranteed profit 
by its own confession of $353,600,000, the vast profits made in build- 
ing the road at an estimated cost of $60,000 per mile, when it ought 
to be about $30,000, and now holds its immense power in perpetual 
danger to, and oppression of the people. That the people are the 
equitable owners of the road, having paid for it in full, and $353,- 
600,000 profit to the corporation besides, is clear ; and yet they have 
no share in the OAvnership, and are charged exorbitant rates of freight 
and passage, — that is to sa}', are taxed to whatever enormous 
amount the payment of interest on the mortgages, of dividends on 
unpaid stock, and of other fraudulent Credit Mobilier charges, shall 
render it advisable and profitable to the company to make. 

Thus Congress has given away about one-fourth of its public lands 
to two gigantic corporations, composed of perhaps one hundred 
stockholders, conferring upon them rights and privileges the richest 
dukes and princes of Europe might be proud of ; and yet it has 
assigned but one-thirty-sixth part of those lands to tlie ten million 
children who now demand education, and whose number will soon 
reach twenty or forty millions of souls. Can any one doubt, in view 
of these facts, that the most vital interests of the people have been 
betrayed by Congress for the aggrandizement of the railroad kings, 
whose patents of sovereignty are contained in those acts of our Con- 
gressional Parliament granting the vast domains of the people to 
monopolizing despotisms, whose powers for illegal taxation will pro- 
duce extortions that have been rivalled only in the Roman provinces 
in the most corrupt days of the Roman Republic? 

Another danger resulting from this insane alienation of the people's 
rich domains is this : The population of the United States is now 
somewhat over forty millions, some twelve millions of which are 
agriculturists. There are left to the United States, of its one billion 
eight hundred and thirty-four million nine hundred and ninety-eight 
thousand four hundred acres, — some three hundred and seventy 
million of which are in Alaska, — - only in the neighborhood of eight 



258 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



hundred million acres of land for our future agricultural population, 
which is weekly increasing, especialty by immigration from Europe, 
that just now is assuming more colossal proportions than it ever had 
before. When will this be exhausted? Estimating every one hundred 
and sixty acres as capable of supporting five persons, the eight hundred 
million acres will be absorbed when our agricultural population shall 
have been increased from twelve to sixty millions ; that is to say, 
when our whole population shall have risen to about one hundred 
and twenty millions, which is certainly no very remote futui'e, being 
likely to occur, according to calculations based on the progress of the 
past, before half a century. This matter gains alt the more impor- 
tance from the fact that the productiveness of our lands is decreas- 
ing to such an extent as to make — what seems now an impossibil- 
ity — seasons of famine in the United States quite likely to occur by 
that time, unless, indeed, our agriculturists engage the aid of science 
in their behalf, and by the establishment of such agricultural schools 
as I have proposed, learn to make the soil jaeld artificially the same 
as it yielded when it was first opened by man. 

It is only by experience that the danger from monopolies shows 
itself. In the infancj^ of the railroad system in the United States no 
trouble was apprehended from it, but now that the system has grown 
to extend from two thousand miles in 1840 to about sixty-seven 
thousand one hundred and four miles in 1873, — as great a length 
for our forty millions of people as Europe has for her three hundred 
millions, — and when thirty-five thousand miles more are now in course 
of construction, the danger has grown so imminent that it were suicide 
on the part of our repubUc to tolerate its uncontrolled domination 
any longer. 

This growth is veiy fully shown by the following tables : — 



Comparative Statistics of American Eailioays — 1871-1878. 







1^ 


Capital 
and 

F'unflerl 
Debt. 


Earnings. 


1 • 


Year. 


Gros^. 


Net. 


From 
Freight. 


From 
Passengers. 


1^ 


1871 . 
1872. 
1873. 
1874. 
1875 . 
1876. 
1877. 
1878. 




44,614 
57,523 
66,237 
69,273 
71,759 
73,508 
74,112 
78,960 


$2,664,627,645 
3,159,423,057 
3,784,543,034 
4,221,763,594 
4,415,631,630 
4,468,591,935 
4,568,597,248 
4,589,948,793 


.$403,329,208 
465,241, 0,=)5 
.526,419,935 
520,466,016 
503,065,505 
497,257,959 
472,909,272 
490,103,351 


$141,746,404 
165,754,373 
183,810,562 
1S9,.570,95S 
185,.506,l:'>s 
186,452,75J 
170,976,097 
187.575,167 


$294,430,322 
340,931,785 
389,035,508 
37! ), -166 ,935 
:;i'.:!, '.1(10,234 
:'.(■, 1,1 37, 376 
342,S59,222 
365,466,061 


$108,898,886 
132,309,270 
137,384,427 
140,999,081 
139,105,271 
136,120,583 
130,050,050 
124,637,290 


$56,456,681 
64,418,1.57 
67,120,709 
67,042,942 
74,294,208 
68,039,668 
58,566.312 
53,629,368 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 



257 



Statement sliowincj the Nuniber of Miles of Bailroad Constructed each Year in 
the United States, from 1830 to the close of 1878. 

[From Poor's Railroad Manual for 1879.] 



Tear. 



1830 

1831 

1833 

1833 

1834 

1835 

1836 

1837 

1838 - 

1839 

1840 

1841 

1842 

1843 

1844 

1845 , 

1846 , 

1847 , 

1848 , 

1849 , 

1850 , 

1851 . 

1852 , 

1853 , 

1854 , 






23 
95 
229 
3S0 
633 
,098 
273 
497 
913 
302 
,818 
536 
,026 
,185 
,377 
633 
930 
598 
,996 
,365 

,982 
,908 
360 
720 






134 

151 

253 

465 

175 

224 

416 

389 

516 

717 

491 

159 

192 

256 

297 

668 

398 

1,369 

1,656 

1,961 

1,926 

2,452 

1,360 



1855 
1850 

1857 

la'is 

1859 

1860 

1861 

1862 

1863 

1864 

1865 

1866 

1867 

1868- 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1872 

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 , 

1877 , 
1878 



Tear. 



18,374 
22,016 
24,503 
26,968 
28,789 
30,635 
31,286 
32,120 
33,170 
33,908 
35,085 
36,801 
39,250 
42,229 
46,844 
52,914 
60,522 
66,242 
70,311 
72,616 
74^74 
77,031 
79,208 
8t,841 






tft> 



1,654 

3,647 
2,647 
2,465 
1,821 
1,846 
651 
834 
1,050 
738 
1,177 
1,716 
2,449 
2,979 
4,615 
6,070 
7,608 
5,720 
4,069 
2,305 
1,758 
2,657 
2,177 
2,694 



Mileage, Capital, Cost, and Revenue of the Bailroads of the United States 

for 1878. 

Cost of railroads and equipments f4, 166,331, 921 

Gross earnings 490,103,351 

Working expenses 302,528,184 

Net earnings 187,575,167 

Interest paid on bonds 103,160,512 

Dividends paid on stock 53,629,368 

In Belgium the government has already secured itself against this 
danger by obtaining control of all the railroads in the country. In 
France this policy has also been followed, though only in a partial way. 
In Germany and England the proposition to have the government 
obtain control of all the railroads is growing daily into more favor. 
In our own countiy, — which is threatened so much more by these 
monopolies than the kingdoms and empires of Europe, owing to the 
immensely more extensive development of our railway S3''stem, — the 
farmers and shippers of the West are just beginning to rise in oppo- 

17 



258 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

sition to an intolerable t3a-anny ; and yet so extensive is the power 
of these railroad monopolies, tlpt scarcely any of the leading news- 
papers of the country — generally so apt to espouse a popular 
cause — have dared to lend their support to this most important and 
significant movement. 

For all these reasons, as well because it is the duty of the govern- 
ment to control all public highways, and afford to each citizen the 
speediest access to all others, as because the government can build 
roads cheaper than any private company, having larger credit and 
greater means, and can operate them more economically, as is shown 
by the United States management of the post-offlce, I propose that 
the government should take control of the railway system of the whole 
country and manage it for the benefit of the whole people, as has been 
done in Belgium with such marked success. The time has gone by for 
keeping the limits of government within the sphere of merely protect- 
ing the liberties of the people against direct violence ; for indirect fraud 
and extortions have assumed proportions that threaten to swallow xip 
nl\ liberties. When corporations can grow so powerful that they may 
with impunity - — as the Erie Road does, and as the New York Central 
and almost all others railroads do, though in a less open way — plun- 
der and oppress the unprotected public, bribe the law-makers of the 
State, make war upon each other, absorb permanently, by greater 
salaries than the State will afford to pay, the most eminent legal 
talent, and by their indirect influence as well as by direct corruption 
gain over the power of the courts, no government that values its 
existence can look on with indifference. Neither the Erie clique 
alone nor the Tammany clique alone could have perpetrated their 
huge frauds successfully ; it was the combination of both, supported, 
moreover, by all the other great monopolies and corporations that 
depended equally upon a rule of fraud and violence, which made 
possible the disgraceful scenes of our times. 

To tamper with these railroad companies by reorganizing them as 
legally existing monopolies, and regulating their charges, mode of 
doing business, etc., — in short, to make a special contract with each 
company, — may allay some of the worst features of our present 
system ; but it is no radical cure, and, moreover, nourishes other 
evils, — such as bribery of the legislative bodies. Special legislation 
is alwaj^s a danger, and, besides, is calculated to deceive the public, 
by a gttctsi-legislative indorsement of the enterprises it charters. 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 259 

What we need is, that the State should assume possession and 
control of all the railroads, and run them at the lowest possible 
rate compatible with a fair interest and dividend, in the interest of 
the people alone, and pay the present owners a just compensation. 
All that has been said of th^ steam-railways in this chapter applies 
equally to the horse-railways, etc., that afford communication to the 
inhabitants of large cities. They should all be under the direct con- 
trol of the respective municipal corporations. 

This change in the administration of the railways should be accom- 
panied by a radical change in their management. Every steam-rail- 
way should have a double track, and the most complete system of 
signals, etc., that human ingenuity can devise, to prevent collisions. 
No car should be heated in any other wa^^ than by hot-water pipes, 
nor lighted with combustible oils ; and a complete sj^stem of ventila- 
tion should be arranged for every passenger-car, and for all cars used 
for the transportation of animals. Ever}' car should be arranged for 
a fixed number of passengers, and no overcrowding should be allowed. 
The cars for the transportation of animals should also be limited to a 
definite number of the various classes of animals, and be so con- 
structed as to allow them a sufHciency of air, water and food. At the 
same time, the road-beds should be so made, and the machinery of 
the locomotives, as well as the construction of the cars, so devised, 
under the guidance of science, as to insure the speediest as well as 
safest transmission of persons and propert3^ 

But there is still another reason why the whole railroad system of 
the country should be put under governmental control. By the crash 
of 1873, the Northern Pacific, the Texas Pacific, and a large number 
of minor railroads have been thrown into bankruptc}^ and by their 
failure have brought ruin upon all the parties concerned, and dragged 
thousands of business houses more or less connected with them into 
bankruptcy. The railroads to which the people of the United States 
had advanced hundreds of millions of dollars in the shape of guaran- 
teed bonds, or donated in the shape of land-grants, became thus 
insolvent simply through the mismanagement, recklessness, and cor- 
ruption of their officers, who had no other intention, indeed, when 
the}' began the construction of those roads, than to rob the people of 
the United States of their public lands and moneys, regardless of 
future results. 

Some of those roads now lie unfinished ; hundreds of thousands of 



260 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

laborei's have been turned out of employment ; iron, steel, woollen, cot- 
ton, silk, and other factories have been closed ; banks have suspended, 
and countless families have been reduced to poverty by the general 
bankruptcy. Would not this whole calamity have been averted, and 
the lands and moneys squandered away upon the railroad companies^ 
saved to the people of the United States, if the government had con- 
ducted those enterprises itself, and du-ected their management?' 
When the Northern Pacific Railroad received from Congress its grant 
of forty-seven million three hundred and sixty thousand acres of land,, 
it estimated, and not unreasonably, the value of that land after the 
completion of the road at $473,000,000, and the entire cost of the- 
construction of the road at only $120,000,000. It is impossible to- 
believe that the government of the United States could not have 
carried out an enterprise established on so sure a footing, not only- 
without any loss to the people, but to their great and permanent 
benefit. Just take, apart from all other facts, the following facts- 
in regard to the California Central Pacific, — the most monstrous 
monopoly of all railroad monopolies in the United States. I quote 
from a letter written by Col. Broadhead, who, during his staj- on 
the Pacific coast, summer before last, has made the affairs of this- 
company a special study. He says : — 

"It has been but a short time since the passenger fai-e from Loa 
Angeles to Oakland was $28, to San Francisco $20 ; thus compelling 
every, passenger to cross the ferry twice (which is owned by the com- 
pany), or pay $8 more if he wished to stop at Oakland. The present 
rate per ton on hay from Los Angeles to Fort Yuma is $27.50, to 
San Francisco $6 per ton, although the distance to San Francisco is 
more than one hundred miles further. I know personally that the 
same fare is charged from Colton to Lathrop as from Colton to San 
Francisco, although the distance to San Francisco is -nearly one 
hundred miles further ; all on the same line, and where there is no 
competition, as there is none between any of the points to which I 
have referred. The power of this corporation on the Pacific coast 
is such, that public men and public journals are afraid to speak out 
in opposition to its exactions. 

"But this power is not confined to the Pacific coast. It, together 
with the Union Pacific, controls the only avenue of trade across the 
continent. If a man in St. Louis wishes to ship goods to any point in 
Nevada, say in the neighborhood of Palisades or Winnemucca Station, 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 261 

on the Central Pacific Railway, he is compelled not only to pay his 
ireight, but to have his goods carried to San Francisco, three hundred 
miles further, and then returned to the point of destination, and to pay 
the return-freight also before he can have his goods delivered. This 
seems monstrous and incredible, but it is true. The passenger fare 
to Omaha is $100, but the two companies charge the same fare — 
$100, and not a dollar less — from San Francisco to Cheyenne, 
about four hundred miles nearer to San Francisco ; so that if a pas- 
senger wishes to go to St. Louis by way of Denver, the distance 
being about the same as bj^ way of Omaha, he has to pay $156, 
•whereas the whole fare by way of Omaha is only $116. This is to 
teep travel off of the Kansas Pacific, and to compel travellers to go 
by way of the Union Pacific. And yet these roads were built. by the 
money of the people of the United States." 

Then, this also should be considered: that railways and telegraphs 
:are important agencies in carrying on war. They are a part of the 
sinews of war. No people prizing their liberty can afford to sur- 
render their railways, canals, telegraphs, or postal offices and lines 
to private monopolies or corporations. Government might as well 
:grant the taxing-power to private corporations as ■ the public high- 
ways ; for the railroad magnates levy any tax they please upon the 
traffic and travel on their roads. The people own the government 
and may control it, but they have no interests in such corporations, 
which are simply despotisms. 

But then the argument is urged, that those roads were a national 
necessity, and advanced in the interests of the whole American people. 
To this I reply, that in such a case the American people should have 
l)uilt and owned the roads themselves, and thus saved the lands and 
subsidies, which after all have merely gone towards enriching the 
•directors and Credit Mobiliers of those corporations. But those 
roads were not unprofitable ventures, and need never have been if 
they had from the beginning been built and run by the United States 
government. 

Besides, let us consider this : If you or I want to start a grocery- 
store or build a foundry, do we go to the Congress, or the State 
legislature, or County Courts, to beg for the land on which to erect 
our buildings, or ask subsidies to pay for their erection? And if we 
■did, would our alms-prayer be listened to for a minute? Why, noth- 
ing but derisive laughter would greet our petition. On what ground, 



262 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

then, should a set of men, forming themselves into a company, have 
the assurance to ask alms from the public treasuries? If the two 
Pacific Railroads could not be built by the men who organized the 
companies that proposed to build them, on a paying basis, why should 
they ask Congress not only to give them public lands for building 
their railroads, but also to give them exclusive and absolute control 
of them, and then levy extortionate prices and outrageous charges, 
not only upon the citizens for freight and passage, but even upon the 
government itself for mail and military service, whereby the people 
and the government are made to paj^ illegal taxes to a rapacious cor- 
poration for the use of their own property. 

But whenever this proposition of governmental control of our rail- 
roads is broached, the cry is raised, that official corruption would 
thereby be still further increased. This fear of the growth of corrup- 
tion in the public departments of the government is, in truth, the main 
ground of the strong opposition made against every proposed extension 
of the powers of government over affairs that involve large money 
transactions. Now, I shall certainly not attempt to deny the existence 
of widespread corruption in the various departments of our govern- 
ment, nor will I urge in its mitigation, that this corruption is a natural 
result of our imperfect departmental and criminal codes, and one of 
the worst legacies left us by the late civil war. But I do say that, in 
spite of this corruption, the government of the United States carries 
on the operations of its various departments cheaper than they could 
be carried on by private corporations, and that all well-conducted 
governments have made the same experience. Has not the legal- 
tender issue shown the national government to be the safest as well 
as the most economical banker? If, then, the national government can 
conduct all these gigantic operations of public intercommunication 
so much cheaper than private corporations, why should not the same 
rule hold good in regard to railway enterprises? I confess that I 
cannot see a single reason ; and even the onl}^ objection which has 
been advanced — that it would place so much appointing poWer in 
the hands of our general government, if all our railroads were to be 
placed under direct national control — loses its weight, when it i& 
remembered that railroad officials must be expert in their special 
branches of business, and can no more be appointed and kept in 
office for political considerations than the officials of the signal- 
service or of the coast-survey bureaus. Besides, as has been shown 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 263 

in the First Part of this work, I propose to divide tlie appointing 
power amongst several distinct departments. 

But even if there were some danger in establishing such a new de- 
partment of the general government, it surely could be no greater 
than that with which the people are threatened by the concentra- 
tion of the railroad interests of the country in the hands of such 
gigantic monopolies as we behold now. The people of the United 
States, under the proposed S3^stem of laws, will be able to control 
the whole administration of public affairs in all departments, includ- 
ing the railway, highways, and telegraphic intercommunication. As 
these are now arranged, the whole power is in the hands of despotic 
monopolies. 

The four great I'oads, that control the greater part of our internal 
commerce, — the New York Central Road, the Erie Road (with its 
extension to the Pacific Ocean), the Pennsylvania Central Road, and 
the Baltimore and Ohio Road, — with their connections, are at present 
banded together to charge rates fixed by a joint committee, to which 
the public are forced to submit, or forego those privileges of railroad 
intercommunication without which modern civilization is next to im- 
possible. But the effects of such a combination are far more wide- 
reaching than would appear from a mere consideration of their local 
power. Its power over the agricultural interests of the country is 
strong enough to excite the gravest apprehensions. Some eight 
million tons of agricultural products are now sent every year b^^ the 
Western States to the seaports of the East, and only two million tons 
of them can be carried by the Erie Canal. Over six million tons of 
grain must, therefore, be annually moved over the railroads of that 
combination, or pool, which thus artificially has the power of fixing 
the price of all the agricultural products of the West. 

Other countries have been forced to acknowledge the necessity of 
such a governmental control over railroads, and why should the eyes 
of our people alone be shut to it, especiall^^ as our peculiar political 
institutions invest them with so much more danger to us? Even the 
German Empire, which for a long time hesitated to meet this ques- 
tion of railroad supervision by governmental authority, has at last 
been forced to prepai'e for its establishment. A commission ap- 
pointed to report on the subject a few years ago, while admitting the 
difficulties that would arise in placing all the railroads of a country 
so extensive as Germany under the control of the government, was 



264 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

jievevtheless forced to confess that it was necessary for the safety 
and freedom of transit : — 

"At the same time, the commission has never been able to escape 
the conviction that the raih-oad business, considering the extension it 
has received in these da3's and what is to be expected from it in the 
future, must ultimately lead to the possession of all railroads by the 
State. Railroads are public modes of transportation, and are, there- 
fore, in the nature of public highways.^ It is only by shrewd aggres- 
sions, in various ways, that the construction and running of railroads 
have been taken out of the hands of the State and allowed to be con- 
trolled by despotic private corporations, that now usurp the functions 
of government. Nevertheless, this state of things cannot continue, 
* * * and hence the commission considers it desirable that the 
State government should always keep in mind the possibility of ob- 
taining this control, and take such steps as will facilitate its realiza- 
tion." 

If this holds true in regard to the German Empire, it is certainly 
far more applicable to our own republic. Hitherto the most effective 
bulwarks of our free institutions have been our State and Federal 
judiciaries, and now the power of our railroad companies has assumed 
such gigantic proportions that they publicly boast of their power to 
bu^^' up the courts; and even the United States Supreme Court, 
hitherto considered irreproachable, has not been able to escape 
this general suspicion. 

In the celebrated case of Murdoch & Clark v. Governor Wood- 
son and Attorney-General Ewing, which was decided by a majority 
of the court in favor of the railroads. Justices Miller and Davis, in 
their dissenting opinion, found themselves forced to say : — 

"But of what avail are constitutional restrictions of legislative 
power, or legislative restrictions of municipal power, if they are dis- 
regarded by the legislatures and municipalities. 

" It may be said, that there remains to the people the protection of 
the courts. But language is at best a very imperfect instrument in 
the expression of thought, and the fundamental principles of govern- 
ment found in constitutions must necessarily be declared in terms 
very general, because they must be very comprehensive. 



1 This, it will be observed, is the same point taken by oar United States 
Supreme Court, which I took note of in this book. See below. 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 265 

" The ing-enuity of casuists and linguists, the nice criticism of able 
counsel, the zeal which springs from a large pecuniary interest, and 
the appeal of injured parties against the bad faith of the legislatures 
who Auolate the Constitution are easily invoked, and their influence 
persuasive with the courts, as they always must be. 

"And if language as plain as that we have been considering, a 
purpose so firmly held and clearly expressed, is to be frittered away 
l3y construction, then courts themselves become but feeble barriers 
to legislative will and legislative corruption, and the interest of the 
people, which alone is to suffer, has but little to hope from the safe- 
guards of written constitutions. 

"These instruments themselves, supposed to be the peculiar pride 
of the American people, and the great bulwark to personal and public 
rights, must fall rapidly into disrepute if the}^ are found to be effi- 
cient only for the benefit of the "rich and powerful, and the absolute 
majority on any subject will seek to enforce their views without 
regard to those restrictions on legislative power which are used only 
to their prejudice." 

When two of the most learned and able justices of the Supreme 
Court of the United States feel it incumbent upon them to make use 
of language so strong and suggestive, it surely is time for the people 
to awake to the danger which threatens this republic from the cor- 
ruption of the judiciarj^, through the overpowering influence exercised 
by gigantic corporations. This influence need not be in the nature 
of a bribe, nor would I even assert that judges have rendered deci- 
sions unduly favorable to railroad corporations with a consciousness 
of such influence upon them, but the evil is all the more dangerous 
in that it works insiduousty, though it may not result in absolute 
crime. 

It is also a suggestive fact, that the enormous earnings of these 
monopolies enable them to retain in their constant employ the most 
eminent lawyers ; whilst the State governments, from fear of being 
charged with extravagance, allow but meagre fees, and must either 
rely upon the patriotism of lawyers or employ inferior counsel at 
starvation prices. 

. Another circumstance to be observed is, that while courts feel 
more or less inclined to favor railroad corporations, no such inclina- 
tion is manifested in cases where public or municipal corporations 
are concerned. It is a notorious fact, that in nearly everv Western 



266 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

State, a number of counties, cities, and towns have been suborned 
into the issuing of bonds for railroad and otlier purposes to such an 
extent, and by means so evidently fraudulent, as to necessitate a 
rate of taxation absolutely ruinous ; and that in nearly every case 
where the defrauded municipal corporations have applied to the 
courts for redress, it has been refused them. 

I do not propose to argue here the question of law raised in the 
various cases alluded to, or even to assert that the decisions in those 
cases have been improper, but I do desire to call public attention to 
the remarkable fact, that for some years past — ever since these 
monopolies have grown up to their present power — the decisions of 
the courts have, as a rule, leaned in their favor, and been against the 
tax-payers, and their State, county, and municipal governments. 

In conclusion, I desire to make some reference to the purely con- 
stitutional point involved, — that is, the right of Congress to take 
such action in regard to these gigantic corporations as I have herein 
suggested. 

In a late debate in Congress on the rights of the Union Pacific 
Railroad, it was held, on the part of the company, that the powers 
conferred upon it by its charter were perpetually granted, and that 
no subsequent Congress could repeal or amend its charter ; which, in 
other words, means, that one Congress may incorporate two or more 
individuals as a company, and give them any rights and privileges it 
pleases, — for instance, all the powers and prerogatives of the national 
government itself, — and that nO subsequent Congress can lawfully 
repeal such grant. Which would effectually put an end to our whole 
form of government by a single act of Congress. 

To prevent such an abandonment of the right of eminent domain 
and representative governmental power, which is inalienably vested 
in the people in a cooperative government, and to secure which to 
the government, beyond the power of dispute, was one of the main 
reasons why the original Articles of Confederation had to make room 
for our present National Constitution, the founders of that Constitu- 
tion incorporated in it this clause (sect. 8, art. 1): — 

"Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign 
nations and among the several States." 

Now, those framers of the Constitution, chary as they were in 
words, were very careful to select just such few words as would 
govern the whole case. 



PUBLIC HIGH W AY t]. 267 

Says Mr. Webster :' — 

"Maritime defence, commercial regulation, and national revenue 
were laid at tlie foundation of the national compact. Tliey are its 
leading- principles and tlie cause of its existence. Tliey were primary 
considerations not only with the convention which framed the Consti- 
tution, but also with the people when they adopted it. Tliey were the 
objects, and the only important objects, to which the States were con- 
fessedly incompetent. To effect these by means of a national govern- 
ment was the constant, prevalent, the exhaustless topic of those who 
favored the adoption of the Constitution." 

The following is from that eminent jurist. Judge Stor3^ In speak- 
ing of the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, he 
saj- s : — 

" It is a power vital to the prosperity of the Union, and without it 
the government would scarcely deserve the name of national govern- 
ment, and would soon sink into discredit and imbecility. It would 
stand as a mere shadow of sovereignty, to mock our hopes and involve 
us in a common ruin." 

And this from a no less eminent constitutional writer, Judge Cooley : 

"I do not understand that the right of eminent domain can be ex- 
ercised on behalf of private parties or corporations, unless the State 
permitting it reserves to itself a right to supervise and control the use 
by such regulation as shall insure to the public the benefit promised 
thereby, and as shall preclude the purpose which the public had in 
view in authorizing the appropriation being defeated by partiality or 
unreasonable selfish action on the part of those who, only on the 
ground of public convenience and welfare, have been suffered to 
make the appropriation." ^ 

Again Judge Cooley says : — 

"And it is believed that an express agreement in the charter that 
the power of eminent domain should not be so exercised as to impair 
or affect the franchise granted, if not void as an agreement beyond 
the power of the legislature to make, must be considered as onl^^ a 
valuable portion of the privilege secured by the grant, and, as such, 
is liable to be appropriated under the power of eminent domain. The 
exclusiveness of the grant, and the agreement against interference 



1 See Webster's Works by Curtis, vol. 1, p. 103. 

■* The People v. Township Board of Salem, 20 Mich. 483. 



268 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

with it, if valid, constitute elements in its value to be taken into 
account in assessing compensation ; but appropriating the franchise 
in such a case no more violates the obligation of the contract than 
■does the appropriation of land which the State has granted under an 
express or implied agreement for quiet enjoyment, but which, never- 
theless, may be taken when the public need requires." ^ 

Again : in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States 
rendered in the "Granger Cases," March 1, 1877, of Munn & Scott v. 
The People of the State of Illinois, 4 Otto, 113, Chief Justice Waite 
said : — 

'> This brings us up to inquire as to the principles upon which this 
power of regulation rests, in order that we may determine what is 
within and what without its operative effect. Looking, then, to com- 
mon law, from whence come the rights which the Constitution protects, 
we find that when private property is affected with a public interest 
it ceases to be juris privati only. This was said by Lord Chief Jus- 
tice Hale more than two hundred years ago in his treatise, De Porti- 
bus Maris^ and has been accepted without objection as an essential 
element in the law of property ever since. Property does become 
clothed with a public interest when used in a manner to make it of 
public consequence, and affect the community at large. When, 
therefore, one devotes his property to a use in which the public has 
an interest, he in effect grants to the public an interest in that use, 
and must submit to be controlled by the public, for the common good, 
to the extent of the interest he has thus created. He may withdraw 
his grant by discontinuing the use, but so long as he maintains the 
use he must submit to the control." 

I cite another authority. It occurs in the case of Gray v. 
The Clinton Bridge. ^ The case arose in the Circuit Court of the 
United States for the District of Iowa. The questions were with 
respect to an act of Congress of February 17, 1867, as to a bridge 
erected b}^ a railroad company across the Mississippi River at Clinton, 
Iowa. In commenting upon the act. Judge Miller, of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, in deciding the case, said : — 

"Navigation, however, is only one of the elements of commerce. 
It is an element of commerce because it affords the means of trans- 



1 Cooley's Const. Luti. 281, 282, 

2 1 Woolworth. 



PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 269 

porting passengers and merchandise, tlie intercourse of which is 
commerce itself. Any other mode of effecting this would be as much 
an element of commerce as navigation. When this transportation 
or interchange of commodities is carried on by land, it is commerce 
as well as when carried on by water ; and the power of Congress to 
regulate it is as ample in one case as in the other. The ' commerce 
among the States ' spoken of in the Constitution must, at the time 
that instrument was adopted, have been mainl}'- of this character, for 
the steamboat, which has created our great internal commerce on the 
rivers, was then unknown. 

"Another means of transportation, equal in importance to the 
steamboat, has also come into existence since the Constitution was 
adopted : a means by which merchandise is transported across States 
and kingdoms in the same vehicle in which it started. The railroad 
now shares with the steamboat the monopoly of the carrying trade. 
The one has, with great benefit, been subjected to the control of salu- 
tary congressional legislation because it is an instrument of commerce. 
Is there any reason why the other should not? However this question 
may be answered in regard to that commerce which is conducted 
wholly within the limits of a State, and is therefore neither foreign 
commerce nor commerce among the States, it seems to me that when 
these roads become parts of great highways of our Union, transport- 
ing a commerce which embraces many States, and destined, as some 
of these roads are, to become the channels through which the nations 
of Europe and Asia shall interchange their commodities, there can be 
no reason to doubt that to regulate them is to regulate commerce 
both with foreign nations and among the States, and that to refuse tO' 
do this is a refusal to discharge one of the most important duties of 
the Federal government. * * * 

" Whenever subjects in regard to which a power to regulate com- 
merce is asserted are in their nature national, or admit of one 
uniform system or plan of regulation, they are exclusively within the 
regulating control of Congress. 

"Transportation of passengei'S or merchandise through a State, or 
from one State to another, is of this nature. 

" Hence a statute of a State imposing a tax upon freight taken up 
within the State and carried out of it, or taken up without the State 
and brought within it, is repugnant to that provision of the Consti- 
tution of the United States which ordains that Cons-ress shall have 



270 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

power to regulate eonimerce with foreign nations and among the 
several States, and with the Indian tribes." 

On appeal, the Supreme Court sustained the opinion of the Circuit 
Court. 

I have quoted enough to show that we are not remediless in this 
contest with railway corporations created by Congress. The whole 
question, so far as the law is concerned, hinges, as I have said before, 
on this inquiry : whether Congress has, under our Federal Constitu- 
tion, the right to grant to any person or corporation an irrepealable 
charter for an}'^ purpose whatever. I insist that it is not competent 
for Congress to make a grant by charter whereby it would be pre- 
cluded from exercising, for the future, any of the essential attributes 
of sovereignty, and that Congress cannot diminish the powers of its 
successors by irrepealable legislation ; and in this opinion I am sup- 
ported by all the great constitutional jurists of the United States. 

Finally, as I have said before, there is no formidable obstacle in 
the way of the Federal and State governments taking lawful possession 
of all the public railway-highways in the republic, and running them 
for the common benefit of all citizens, at reasonable rates for passage 
and freight. The people should own and control their public high- 
ways and all other means of public intercommunication. The har- 
nessing of steam and electricity, by the inventive genius of Fulton 
and Morse, has multiplied the products of human industry about five- 
hundred-fold ; but the vast benefits arising from these discoveries 
ought not to be turned into means of oppression and wrong by cor- 
porations, that usurp the powers of government under oppressive 
charters granted by the State and Federal legislatures. 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMrOSTS. 271 



TAXATIOI!^, DUTIES, AI^D IMPOSTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

• THE NATURE OF TAXATION. 

When the people of a certain district, territory, or State gather 
themselves into a political unitj^ for the purpose of securing to each 
citizen his right to life, freedom, and property, and thereby his I'ight 
to the fit and harmonious use of all the faculties of his mind and 
body, they establish a government to carry out their purpose. This 
government requires : First, money-salaries for the persons composing 
it, since they have no other means of support ; and, second, money for 
the execution of those measures which the government considers 
essential to carry out its purposes and to execute the law. In 
private associations, such money- salaries and expenses are obtained 
from the profits of the associations, and deducted before the declara- 
tion of a dividend. 

Government, however, does not propose to make any profit, redi- 
visible among its citizens, but simpl}'^ to conduct all its functions on 
the most economical basis. It does not propose to make out of its 
postal, railroad, and other functions money enough to pay its own 
expenses^ since such a course would be manifestly unjust to the 
majority of the people. It is, therefore, bound to assess all the 
expenses of its administration upon the whole people indiscrimi- 
nately, which assessment is called taxation. 

The problem arises here: How is that taxation to be levied justly 
and impartially upon all values alike in the same proportion ? 

It is one of the old legal superstitions that only land is real prop- 
erty, and hence that its possession must be the basis of all taxation. 
This superstition had its origin in the feudal arrangement of assess- 
ing each vassal a specified number of warriors, according to the 



272 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

extent and population of his landed property ; the landed proprietors 
alone being considered worthy of direct taxation. 

Moses did not make use of this inequitable species of taxation ; he 
simply levied a capitation-tax of a half-shekel on every male in the 
nation, besides a tribute of the first fruits and the first born of all 
domestic animals, together with tithes for the suppoi-t of the priestly 
tribe of the Levites, and every third year a tithe for the support of 
the poor. It is, moreover, to be observed, that the undue increase of 
these taxes under the kings, when the organic law of Moses had 
already lost much of its supremacy, and when thus taxes began to 
be levied upon lands, houses, and foreign merchandise, materially 
assisted in the final utter overthrow of the Mosaic code, the disruption 
of the kingdom after the death of Solomon, and the secession of the 
ten tribes, which a few centuries after was followed by the scattering 
of the Jewish people over the world. 

Neither in the Greek nor in the Roman Republics were taxes evjer 
levied. They supported their organizations, as we have already 
seen, by the plunder of war ; and it was only in the later times of 
the Roman Empire, that divers kinds of levies were practised to meet 
the enormous expenses of its rulers. 

But in the feudal times a king levied upon his subordinate princes, 
whenever war was necessary, according to the terms of their feudal 
lien, and had to recover his other necessaries from his own domains 
and the plunder obtained by the war. The noble landed possessors 
ao-ain covered their expenses by divers arrangements with their free- 
holders, tenants, slaves, etc., or, if very noble, by plundering who- 
ever fell into their hands, and particularly the Jews. 

But it is very evident that thus to consider land as the only real 
taxable property is a wrong and unjust procedure. Take a farmer 
who owns a farm, say, worth $8,000, its annual income being $500. 
You assess him as worth, say, $6,000, — it being a foolish custom always 
to assess at about one-third less than the actual value. Next you 
call upon a physician who has an extensive practise. He has no real 
property, — none at all ; hence you do not assess him. Neverthe- 
less the physician has an annual income of, say, $10,000. 

This is flagrant injustice. The farmer has land worth $500 a year, 
and the physician has an income from his practise worth $10,000 a 
year ; and yet under that system the latter paj^s no tax, while the 
former pays an exorbitant one, simply because his property is in 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 273 

land. The unjust inequalit}- becomes still more glaring where, in 
some States, if the farmer has mortgaged his land, worth $8,000, for 
$6,000, he pays, nevertheless, taxes upon the whole value, where his 
interest in it is only $2,000. The farmer's land is nothing more 
than a source of revenue, like the practise of the phj^sician ; in either 
case the income should be taxed. If a person has other real estate 
than that from which he derives income, and holds it unimproved and 
without leasing it, he should, if practicable, be taxed for the income 
it would bring if used or leased. 

Taxation, to be just, should be primarily assessed according to the 
respective net incomes of all citizens, to be ascertained as stated. 
Thus the farmer should pay taxes upon his income, and not upon 
the real estate from which it is produced ; the manufacturer no 
taxes upon his factory, machinery, stock material, capital used, or 
his dwelling-house ; nor the phj^sician upon his office, library, med- 
icines, or dwelling-house ; and the reasonable necessary expenses of 
carrying on such business, or those pertaining to the practise of a 
physician, should be deducted from the gross income in all cases ; the 
rule being to tax net income only. 

But where such assessment is made upon the unproductive wealth 
of citizens, that assessment should be made upon the real value, since 
every other form must pji'ove unjust, and cannot bear equally upon 
all. As things are at present, we assess the $30,000,000,000 of our 
whole national wealth at only $14,178,986,732. That this must 
operate great wrong on many is evident. Massachusetts, for in- 
stance, paying taxes on $1,591,000,000 of its computed wealth of 
$2,132,000,000, is greatly wronged if New York paj'^s taxes on 
$1,900,000,000, when the real value of her wealth is $6,500,000,000 ; 
and similar injustice cannot fail to occur in the assessments of indi- 
vidual citizens in the separate States. 

The assessment made upon the income, however, should include 
all income, and no source of income should ever be exempted by law 
from taxation. It is directly violative of all justice to exempt from 
taxation certain bonds bearing interest, or any other property, thereby 
establishing among the tax-payers a privileged class, or a moneyed 
aristocracy. It was bad enough to sell our interest-bearing bonds, 
in man}' instances, at only one-half their par value, — bonds that 
bore heavy interest, and that have since been unjustly made pay- 
able, both capital and interest, in gold, — but it was an additional 

18 



274 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

outrage upon the people to exempt these bonds from taxation. This 
has created a privileged class in our republic, utterly inconsonant 
with the principles of a just government, bearing equally upon all 
citizens. 

But our present mode of taxation operates unjustly also in another 
way. Take, for instance, the following figures : — 

In 1875, out of a revenue from internal taxes of somewhat over 
$103,000,000, the North-Eastern States, including Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, paid 
$4,000,000, but in proportion to population should have paid $9,250,- 
000, aud according to wealth nearly $14,000,000. The Middle States, 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, $24,000,000. 
Their contribution according to population would have been the same 
amount, but their proportion according to wealth would have been 
$38,500,000. The North- Western States and the Territories, includ- 
ing Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, 
Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Dakota, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, 
and Wyoming, paid $43,500,000. Their proportionate share accord- 
ing to population would have been only $30,333,333, and according 
to wealth only $27,500,000. The Southern Middle States, including 
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and 
Missouri, paid $26,000,000 ; but their proportion according to popu- 
lation would have been only $17,750,000, and according to wealth 
only $11,500,000. The Cotton States, including South Carolina, 
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, 
and Tennessee, paid $2,250,000 ; but their proportion according to 
population would have been $19,500,000, and according to wealth 
$17,000,000. The Pacific States paid over $3,000,000 ; but according 
to population should have paid less than $2,000,000, and according 
to wealth less than $2,250,000. 

But if our system of Federal taxation works thus unjustly, oppres- 
sively, and encourages corruption, it must be acknowledged that our 
systems of State and municipal taxation are equally deficient and 
inequitable. Indeed, it is hard to say whether there is more dissat- 
isfaction expressed with the excessive amount of the taxes, or the 
injustice of the system under which they are assessed. Take the 
assessment of real estate, to which I have already referi'ed in another 
connection, as an instance. 

No rule is established by which to determine the actual value of a 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 275 

piece of property. One board of assessors may fix it at $1,000, and 
another board at $2,000, both boards acting in perfect good faith. 
Who is to decide, and what assessment is to rule? Movable prop- 
ert}^ is exposed to the same uncertainty as to its value, not to mention 
that over one-half of it escapes taxation altogether, because its exist- 
ence is unknown to the assessors. The taxation of the property of 
corporations involves even still more difficulties and injustice. First, 
there arise the intricate qu^estions whether all the stock of those cor- 
porations ought to be taxed, and in whose hands it ought to be taxed, 
and whether the debts of the corporation ought to be taken into 
account in the assessment. But the most difficult problem is to dis- 
cover the market value of the property owned by these corporations. 
The assessment of railroad property illustrates this difficulty most 
strikingly, as the following instances will show : — 

In a dispute that had arisen concerning the taxation of the Missouri 
Pacific Railroad, it was shown conclusively that the real value of the 
road was in the neighborhood of $20,000,000, and that it paid a six 
per cent dividend on that amount. The road had been assessed, 
however, at only one-half of that sum, — $9,659,423. Nevertheless, 
the president of the road returned its actual value, under oath, at 
only $3,716,920, — not one-fifth of what it ought to have been. 

The St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad, again, which was con- 
structed at a cost of $20,000,000, was assessed at only $6,266,334. 

The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, finall^^, which was worth at least 
$25,000 per mile, according to the sworn statement of its own chief 
officer, was assessed only at the rate of $10,000 per mile. 

The following table of a late date exhibits still more clearly this 
general inequality of assessment in the different States : — 



276 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



State Debts, Valuation, and Taxes for 1878-9. 



States. 



Alabama . . 

Arkansas . . 

California . . 

Colorado . . 

Connecticut . 

Delaware . . 

Florida . . . 

Georgia . . . 

Illinois . . . 

Indiana . , . 
Iowa .... 

Kansas . . . 

Kentucky . . 

Louisiana . . 

Maine .... 

Maryland . . 

Massachusetts 

Michigan . . 

Minnesota . . 

Mississijjpi . . 

Missouri . . . 

Nebraska . . 

Nevada . . . 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 
New York . . 
North Carolina 
Ohio .... 

Oregon . . . 

Pennsylvania . 

Rhode Island . 
South Carolina 
Tennessee . . 
Texas .... 
Vermont . . 
Virginia . . . 

West Virginia 

Wisconsin . . 



Sept. 30, 

Sept. 30, 

Oct. 31, 

Nov. 30, 

Dec. 1, 

Jan. 1, 

Jan. 1, 

Jan. 1, 

Oct. 1, 

Nov. 1, 

Oct. 30, 

July 1, 

Oct. 10, 



Date of 
Statement. 



Amount of State 
Debt. 



Funded. 



1S79 

1879 

1878 
1878 
1878 
1879 
1878 
18781 
1878 
1879 
1877 
1878 

1879 

Jan. 1, 1879 

Jan. 1, 1879 



Un- 
funded. 



Oct. 1, 

Jan. 1, 

Oct. 1, 

Dec. 23, 

Jan. — , 

Jan. 1, 

Nov. 30, 

Jan. 1. 

June 1, 1879 



1877 
1879 
1879 
1878 
1879 
1879 
1879 
1879 



Oct. 31, 
Sept. 30, 
Sept. 30. 
Nov. 15, 

Jan. 1, 1879 



1878 
1878 
1879 
1878 



Dec. 



Sept 
Oct. 
Dec. 
Sept 
Aug. 
Dec. 



1, 1878 

2, 1879 
31, 1878 
21, 1878 

1, 1878 
1, 1879 



$7,809,200 

2,680,000 
3,403,000 
None. 
4,967,600 

953,000 
1,284,700 
10,644,500 

552,742 
4,998,178 

545,435 
1,181,975 

1,858,008 

11,724,800 

5,848,900 

10,758,678 

33,020,464 

913,150 

2,675.000 

,525,000 

16,758,000 
499,267 
557,017 

3,459,100 

2,196,300 
9,154,055 
16,960,04.5 
6,476,905 

320,000 
21,875,621 



2,534,500 
5,130,966 
">,->21,300 
173,861 
139,500 
i; 1878^ 29,350,826 
Creation of State debt pro 
I hibited by Constitution. 
Sept. 30, 18791 2,252,0571 



P2,320,000 
None 
123,803 



10,905 
None. 



1,035,943 
2,521,657 



122,002 



250,000 



88,625 
179,503 



926,695 
10,160,183 



331,575 

113,883 

None. 

1,608,730 

4,201,902 









Amount of Taxable 
Property as Assessed. 



Heal. 



$827,399 

613,957 

4,105,884 

155,506 i 

2,246,4901 

134,400] 

250,4731 

1,129,9901 

3,300,000 

2,608,488 

965,062 

705,060 

1,430,957 

2,432,188} 
880,007 1 

1,063,958! 

1,000,000! 
115,300 
672,647 
933,539 

2,752,230 
918,413 
252,404 

400,000 

820,000 
5,323,149 

533,635 
4,496,376 

323,583 

6,092,001 

492,360 
715,982 
626,529 

1,396,170 
292,228 

2,500,000 



$117,486,581 
Real and Personal. 



$54,606,057 

454,641,311 

25,804,345 

238,027,032 



18,950,160' 
140,153,250 
994,214,374 
637,763,081 
303,383,682 

96,695,457 



O Co 



$32,286,484 65 
140,431,866 55 

17,268,303136 
106,379,945115 
50 

10,521,067 70' 

95,506,280 50 
206,908,736] 33 
246,605,747.30' 

79,618,995 20 



41,131,186 



j 345,037,875 ) 

I Real and Personal. \ 

177,000,0001 32,361,402 

\ 224,579,569 ) 

( Real and Personal. ( 

247,044,271 

Real and Personal. \ 



,090,749,235 

308,753,036 

175,788,979 

95,937,398 

425,995,888 

47,391,781 

16,820,384 



17 



438,771,779 
66,127,992 
45,141,650!20 
33,370,95735 

163,543,097j40 
27,968,01860 
12,744,289,90 



17 



199,080,353 
Real and Personal. 



445,918,221 

5,376,252,178 

91,679,918 

[,092,116,952 



160,497,340 

379,488,140 

56,884,639 

490,190,387 



41,436,086 I 

Real and Personal. ( 

leaTEst"! 159,382,242 



20 

25 
29 

32K.' 
29 

70 



188,655,569 
85,633,873 

202,340,815 
83,174,600 
70,849,386 

246,391,193 

515,241 95,079,808 



681,620 322,470,945 90,631,981 16>g 



67,397,249 
40,083,341 
20,871,338 
174,457,409 
16,845,123 
76,178,438 

33,480,119 30 



In fact, it is this inequality of the distribution of taxes, not only 
upon States and sections of country, but also, and chiefly, upon indi- 
viduals, which is the main ground for the general disinclination of 
people to pay their assessed taxes, and a disposition on the part of 
otherwise strictly honest men to dodge their tax-bills. The State 
assessors of New York, in a recent report on the subject, mention, 
however, that it is not only the evasion of assessment on personal 
property, but many and vast inequalities in the valuation placed upon 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 277 

the same kinds of property in different parts of tlie State, of wliich 
■complaint is made. Bank-stocli, for instance, is valued at forty per 
cent in some counties, at par in others, and at one hundred and thirt}' 
per cent in others. In some parts of the State real estate is assessed 
£Lt fifty-six per cent of its cash value, while bank-stock is listed at its 
full value. To make the unfairness of the present system more clear, 
'the assessors'suppose the case of a man having $5,000,000, which he 
wishes to invest in five different kinds of property. The first million 
■would cost him $25,800 in taxes, and yield a net income of $40,000 ; 
the second would cost $38,480 in taxes, and yield a net income of 
^60,000; the third would cost but $2,247 in taxes, and yield a net 
income of $70,000; the fourth would cost $6,750 in taxes, and yield 
:a net income of $80,000; the fifth would cost $34,150 in taxes, and 
yield a net income of $25,800. 

Now, a purely income tax would do away with all the difficulties 
suggested by these New York assessors. The subject is one so 
important, and one so little understood generally, that I cannot for- 
bear quoting from an eminent writer, who deals with the question, 
however, mainly in regard to its connection with the amount of taxes 
■SiW classes of people have to pay upon the dutiable articles of com- 
merce which they consume. • He says : — 

"The irregularity in the distribution of wealth in the several States 
raises the necessity of a radical reform of our system of national 
taxation. Its burden does not bear upon the people in proportion 
to their ability to pay. Our taxes are all indirect, and being laid 
upon articles of consumption, the consumers pay them at the end 
■of the account, together with the profits on the increased capital 
required to pay the customs and excises. The people contribute the 
■entire revenue as consumers, and not as property-holders ; and the 
poorest are consumers of articles that are taxed from forty to two 
hundred per cent. The wealthy pay no more than the poor and the 
middle classes, except so far as their consumption is greater. 

"Fortunately, through the returns under our late income-tax, we are 
able to approximate the amount of this difference in consumption. 
The aggregate return of incomes in New York City for 1867-8, with 
the number who made returns, was as follows : — 



278 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

Total Income. Tax-payers. 

1867 $68,045,862 17,430 

1868 85,597,484 17,919 

Population 900,000 Families, 180,000 

Families that returned no income 162,081 

Number of persons in the income families 62,716 

Number of persons of less than f 1,000 837,284 

"We count the wealthy class at three and one-half persons per 
family, and the poor at over five. This is liberal toward the rich, as 
shown by the fact that one-fourth of the people of Massachusetts — 
being of foreign birth — give to the State more than half her children ; 
and also by facts that have been reported as to the numbers in the 
' upper ' families of New York City, not including servants. 

"The increased consumption of the sixty- two thousand seven hun- 
dred and sixteen persons in the income families measures the greater 
amount of revenue contributed by them. To get at this we have 
analyzed the thirty-eight doable columns of income-returns for 1868, 
published by the New York Tribune in June, 1869, with the following 
results : — 

^o. Persons. Amount Income. Average Each. 

67 Over $100,000 $217,138 

710 From $20,000 to $100,000 40,577 

2,774 From $5,000 to $20,000 9,204 

6,981 From $1,000 to $5,000 2,173 

• 8,387 Of $1,000 and under 380 



17,919 Paid $1 to $3,019,218 ........ $4,777 

" It is estimated that these classes respectively consume an average 
of two, four, six, eight, and twenty times as much of taxed products 
as is consumed by the average of the great mass of the people whose 
incomes are less than $1,000, averaging probably $450, against $1,450 
for the 8,387 persons in the table, adding the $1,000 exempted. 

"If we now multiply the numbers of the several classes of income- 
tax payers by the ratios of two, four, six, eight, and twenty, to rank 
them numerically with the mass of the people as consumers, we shall 
have the following : — 

First class 1,340 

Second class . 5,680 

Third class 16,644 

Fourth class 23,924 

Fifth class 16,774 

Total - 64,362 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 279 

"These represent families ranking with the average of the people 
as consumers. We now have the following: — 

Families returning no income 162,081 

Income families as increased ; 64,302 

" Suppose, what is not far from the fact, that the people of New- 
York pay $10,000,000 annually to the general government on their 
consumption. Of this, the 162,081 families pa}^ $7,157,695, and tlie 
64,362 pay $2,842,305, against $958,000 if they consumed no more 
than the mass of the people. This gives an increased payment by tlie 
17,919 income-men, on their increased consumption, of $1,884,305. 
This is nearly nineteen per cent of the aggregate of $10,000,000 paid 
by that city. 

"The $85,000,000 of income returned in 1868 represented just 
about half the total income of that city over $500 exemption. Thus 
it is seen that the 17,919 persons, who, with their exempted $1,000 
added, obtained over half the income of all the people having more 
than $500 each, paid less than one-fifth of the entire revenue 
obtained from the city by virtue of their vast surplus income, while 
the mass of the people, with no surplus income, paid over seventy-one 
per cent of the whole. In the eye of justice, the income class, 
including all with over $500 of gross income, should have paid the 
whole, efpch one in proportion to his income." 

But the income-tax has still another feature which strongly recom- 
mends it for general adoption. It enables the government to check 
the inordinate growth of large incomes by levying an additional tax 
of a certain percentage above a fixed amount of income. Without 
attempting to estabUsh precise figures for what must of necessity be 
a subject of practical legislation, I may illustrate my idea by the 
following : — 

Assuming an income of from $5,000 to $10,000, and to be taxed 
five per cent, an income of from $10,000 to $20,000 w^ould be taxed 
ten per cent ; from $20,000 to $30,000, fifteen per cent ; from $30,000 
to $50,000, twenty per cent ; from $50,000 to $75,000, twenty-five per 
cent; from $75,000 to $100,000, thirty per cent; and for all incomes 
over $100,000, say, thirty-five per cent. ' All the surplus money thus 
raised by taxation, not used for regular governmental expenses, to be 
used for payment of public debts, the establishment of schools, 
asylums, and internal improvements. 



280 LIBERTY AND LAW, 

It has long been conceded, that the extraordinary increase of large 
capitalists in our republic constitutes the greatest danger to which it 
is exposed. We have little or nothing to fear from monarchical ten- 
dencies, little or nothing from an aristocracy of birth ; nor need we 
apprehend an}' danger from priestly rule, under our system of com- 
plete religious freedom. But the danger that threatens us is the one 
which all republics must guard against, which killed all semblance of 
popular freedom in the Lombardian republics of the Middle Ages, 
and which long before had put an end to the Roman Republic, — the 
accumulation of inordinate wealth, and consequently of power, in the 
hands of a very few individuals. 

The establishment of the first triumvirate in Rome is perhaps the 
most noted instance of this danger. Three men — Pompey, Crassus, 
and CcBsar — succeeded, by an alliance of wealth with military glory 
and political ambition, in putting an end to republican institutions 
in a very few 3'^ears. Narrow-minded Crassus furnished the wealth, 
ambitious Csesar furnished occasions to Crassus for constantly increas- 
ing his wealth, and self-glorifying Pompey used Crassus's money to 
increase his power with the people and the army. But it was the 
man of money, Crassus, the narrow-minded, — and men of money are 
generally narrow-minded, — who really furnished the lever wherewith 
the republic was lifted out of its axis and thrown into the bottomless 
pit of subsequent Csesarism and barbaric invasion. 

Now, this same accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few comes 
with rapid strides under our very eyes. Thirty years ago a man 
worth a single million' was a great rarity in pur country ; to-day every 
large city counts its millionaires by the dozen. They have absolute 
power over the railroads, telegraphs, and their tariffs ; the}^ have 
obtained the best lands of the United States by bribing Congress ; 
the)' make corners in grain, and raise the price of wheat and corn as 
iancy prompts them ; nay, they play with the lives and health of 
the poorer classes by organizing "syndicates" for the purchase of 
the world's supply of opium and quinine, when they can see large 
profits ahead. 

This one fact alone should be a sufficient warning : One of these 
money-men, William H. Vanderbilt, recently sold a large amount of 
his railroad stock, and with the proceeds bought about fifty million 
dollars of United States registered four-per-cent bonds. A)icl on 
these fifty millions he pays no taxes. Is this equitable? Is it just? 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 281 

The poor man pays as heavy a tax on the pound of coffee or sugar 
which he buys as Mr. Vauderbilt, but the latter pays not a cent of 
taxes on an income of two millions per annum derived from those 
bonds, which two millions annually all the other tax-payers have to pay 
him through their national government. 

In truth, I hold the danger to our rights and liberties so threaten- 
ing, from the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few, that I 
would even extend a check upon it beyond the operation of taxation, 
by limiting the power of individuals to convey, by gift or devise, their 
property and riches beyond a certain value or amount. The right of 
a State to exercise such a restrictive power has never been seriously 
questioned, and the expediency of exercising it is constantly gaining 
more advocates as the evil increases. One of the most illustrious of 
the recent converts to a recognition of this necessity is Professor 
Blnntchly, the great German, or, rather, Swiss jurist. His recom- 
mendation of the changes to be made in the present system is sub- 
stantially as follows : — 

If the testator leaves direct heirs, the whole legac}'' to go to them ; 
but if no direct heirs exist, a proportion of the legacy, increasing in 
value with the whole amount, should go to the State or the commu- 
nity, as follows : If the legacy goes to parents, or grandparents, or 
sisters, or brothers, or their descendants, then, Mr. Bluntchly sug- 
gests, the State should take five per cent of every $3,000, ten per 
cent of every $20,000, and ten per cent additional whenever the 
amount exceeds $30,000. 

The more remote the relationship of the heirs, the larger should be 
the proportion given to the State. If there are no relatives, the State 
should get everything. 

The fund thus acquired by the State should be set apart for educa- 
tional and benevolent institutions ; and in this way wealth would be 
made to circulate through the body-politic, even as the blood circu- 
lates through the human body. 

Whether this plan of Professor Bluntchly is the best that can be 
devised, I leave undecided. Each country would probably find it 
incumbent to change the figures to suit its special economical con- 
dition. I only wish to emphasize the necessity of substituting some 
such s^'^stem for our present mode of keeping such a vast power as 
that of unlimited grants and devises unchecked by the law. 



282 LIBEETY AND LAW. 



CHAPTEE IT. 

THS TRUE RULES OF TAXATION. 

Adam Smith laj^s down the maxims of taxation in this manner : — 

1. "The subjects of every State ought to contribute towards the 
support of the government as nearly as possible in proportion to 
their respective abilities, — that is, in proportion to the revenue which 
they respectively enjoy under the protection of the State." 

2. " The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be 
certain, and not arbitrary ; the time of payment, the manner of pa}^- 
ment, and the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to 
the contributor, and to every other person." 

3. "Every tax ought to be levied at the time and in the manner 
in which it is the most likely to be convenient for the contributor to 
pay it." 

4. " Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and 
keep out of the pockets o" the people as little as possible, over and 
above what it brings into the public treasury of the State." 

These maxims are so manifestly just that they ought not to stand 
in need of any arguments in their support. The only eqjnal taxation 
is that which is levied in proportion to the revenue which citizens re- 
spectively enjoy under the protection of the State, — that is to sa3% 
upon their income. And not only is it the only equal and just mode, 
but it also excludes arbitrariness in the assessment, and makes it 
always distinctly known to every person how much his taxes will 
amount to. 

It is, furthermore, the only mode of taxation which can be so reg- 
ulated that it can be levied at the time most convenient to the tax- 
payer, and which admits of the cheapest system of collection. Under 
our present system of collecting taxes and duties, the cost of col- 
lecting, in many instances, equals the amount collected. 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 283 



CHAPTER ITI. 

THE LIMITS OF TAXATION. 

Taxation should be levied only for the needs of the government to 
carry out its functions, and for no other purpose whatever. 

Under the present state of things the larger amount of the taxes 
goes, in a direct or indirect wa}^ towards the payment of interest on 
the bonds, mortgages, and loans negotiated by the general govern- 
ment, or the several States, counties, and cities. By the adoption of 
the money-system I propose, and which is the only system founded 
upon a rational basis and comprehension of the real nature of money, 
this large amount of taxes would in a very short time cease to op- 
press the people. 

For with the establishment of such a money-system by the general 
government, the prohibition of the issue of further bonds by the 
several States, counties, cities, etc., would necessarily go hand-in- 
hand, since such issue would interfere with the money-making power 
of the general government, as has already been, shown. Nor, in- 
deed, as the whole past history of our cities, counties, and States 
has shown, is there any occasion for the issue of such bonds. With 
rare exceptions, those loans have been contracted in the behalf of 
upstarting monopolies, raili'oads, or other enterprises, that, as soon 
as thus nourished into wealth, have turned around and become a 
curse to the cities, counties, and States that cherished them. The 
railroad history of Missouri, Tennessee, and North Carolina is full 
of wholesome lessons in this respect. The financial history of New 
York City is a still more frightful lesson in the same direction, as to 
the folly and danger of permitting cities this prerogative of money- 
making by the issue of bonds. Had New York City had no power 
to borrow money on her bonds, the Tweed infamy would have been 
impossible, and the citizens of to-day and of an indefinite future 
would not have been saddled with a debt of over a hundred millions, 
the interest on which constitutes about the largest item in the whole 
tax-list. Indeed, it may be safely said that the taxes paid by the 
people during the last ten years in the way of interest alone on the 
loans contracted by their respective States, counties, and cities, 
would have sufficed to make all the improvements for which the 
loans were originally contracted. It is this interest which is the 



284 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

heaviest tax, the real money-despot, that is to be abolished. In 
the general government its power will be abohshed by issuing paper 
money to redeem interest-bearing bonds ; in the States, counties, 
and cities it will be suppressed by prohibiting their power to con- 
tract loans, except from the Federal government for the purposes of 
liquidation. 

The individual alone, who chooses to put himself under its rule, 
may of course do so, but for the consequences he has onlj?^ himself to 
blame. Few individuals are, however, likely to be so imprudent in 
their private affairs. It is only through the indirect agency of the 
State that men are guilty of these things. Men who would rebel at 
the least direct taxation are quite ready indirectly to tax themselves 
to any extent, whether through the agency of interest or of the tariff. 

Let me add, in a general way, some few further suggestions in 
relation to the subject of taxation. Now, it may at first sight seem 
somewhat out of place to mention in connection with this matter of 
general taxation the insurance business, whicli is usually considered 
to be of purely private significance ; but I am very stronglj' of the 
conviction, that the time has come when the various municipal and 
State governments of our republic should undertake at any rate the 
businesss of fire-insurance on their own account, levying a general tax 
for the benefit of all the people, as is done in Berlin, Dresden, and 
other cities of Germany. Not only is this system far cheaper than 
our present system of irresponsible chartered corporations, but it 
also interests every citizen in preventing the outbreak of fires, and 
yet secures to each insured person who has been an innocent 
sufferer from conflagration, the immediate and absolutely certain 
payment of his claim. 

To show how the system works in Germany, I will single out the 
following statistics from the report of the Berlin fire-department for 
the year 1872-3, Berlin having then a population of about one million 
inhabitants. The losses by fire for that year amounted to only 
$70,000 (77,574 thalers). 

According to tlie German plan of insurance, ever}^ house-owner in 
the city of Berlin is compelled to insure his buildings, — though only 
to three-fourths of their value, — and the whole amount of insuranee 
in BerUn for that year, 1872-3, was 326,928,025 thalers for buildings, 
and 355,254,544 thalers for personalty. According to the German 
plan of insurance, again, the holder of a policy does not pay an an- 
nual, regular premium, but only so much of an assessment as is nee- 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 285 

essai'y to pay his part of the losses of the year. The polic^^-holders 
of Berlin had therefore to pay only four and two-thirds cents for 
every $100 of their insurance, as their annual assessment for the year 
1872-3. In other words, it cost only $4.66 a year to insure a house 
worth $10,000 in Berlin, whereas under our American S3'stem a 
similar house would cost a premiujn of $75 to $150 a year. 

In machiner}'^ and technical perfection, the fire departments of St. 
Louis, Chicago, and Cincinnati are greatly ahead of those of Ger- 
many. The Berlin fire-department had not then a single steam- 
engine, and in many cases had to haul the water to the places of fire 
in large casks. Nor is the organization of the Berlin fire-department 
very expensive. The whole expense for 1872-3 amounted to barely 
$90,000; some $160,000 less than the cost of the St. Louis fire-de- 
partment, for instance. But the discipline of the Berlin fire-depart- 
ment is next to perfect, and its telegraphic communication with every 
part of the city complete. Ev^ery member of the department is 
a trained soldier, and the strictest military discipline is preserved. 
Should it be necessary in the course of a fire, the next in command 
can always take the place of his superior. Besides, while the fire 
lasts, the chief of the fire department has control over the police, and 
his authority is supreme. Ttiis systematic cooperation has made 
large fires next to impossible in Berlin. During the year 1872-3 
there occurred seven hundred and twenty-nine fires in Berlin, of 
which number six hundred and two were small fires, twenty-three 
chimneys on fire, sixly-four ordinaty-sized fires, and forty large fires. 
Of these forty large fires, not a single one extended into an adjoining 
building, owing to the prompt and circumspect action of the fire 
department. 

The main attention of the fire department is, however, directed 
towards suppressing fires at the first start, and hence to keep a close 
watch in every part of the city ; and to keep telegraphic communi- 
cation so easy of access that not one superfluous minute need be lost 
in summoning assistance. 

Now let it be remembered, that a citizen of St. Louis, for instance, 
pays, first, insurance on his building and its contents ; he furthermore 
pays a tax for the maintenance of the St. Louis fire-department. 
The rates of insurance are most likely too well known to my readers. 
The rates of taxation can be readily gathered from the following 
tables : — 



286 



LIBEETY AND LAW. 



Expenses of the St. Lords Fire-Department for the Year 1878-9. 



Building account 

Nev7 engines account 

Repairing engines account 

Repairing hook and ladder apparatus account 

Furniture account 

Fuel account * 

Hose account 

New hose-carriage, etc., account 

Repairing hose-carriages and wagons account 

Horses account 

Horse-feed account 

Horse-shoeing account 

Harness account 

Light account 

Miscellaneous account 



.... $6,500 51 

.... 8,200 00 

.... 4,635 09 

806 39 

967 14 

.... 1,902 56 

..... 12,9SS 75 

.... 785 00 

..... 3,826 25 

.... 3,368 43 

.... 8,928 89 

..... 2,255 50 

..... 2,033 90 

..... 3^536 11 

..... B,'769 68 

Salary account 182,483 89 

Less credit 



$251,988 09 
952 33 

$251,035 76 



Hence, while Berlin,- with a population of one million of souls, in 
1872-3 paid only $90,000 for its fire department, St. Louis in 1878-9, 
with little less than half that population, paid over $250,000 to put 
out the fires that the insurance companies were paid premiums to in- 
sure against. This does not include the expenses of the fire-alarm 
telegraph, some $15,000 per year, nor the premiums of insurance, 
amounting to about $1,000,000 per annum. 

Again, the losses by fire in St. Louis for 1878-9 were as follows : — 



Months. 


1 
s's 


OSS to Insur- 
ance Com- 
panies on 
Buildings. 




OSS to Insur - 
ance Compa- 
nies on Stock, 
Furiiiture, (f 
Machinery. 




ill 

■^ s e 
o>nO 




^ 


^ 


s 


>j 


C-( 


5h 


April .... 


$5,120 00 


$4,005 00 


$6,270 00 


$5,720 00 


$11,390 00 


.$9,725 00 


May . . 






4,790 00 


3,950 00 


29,500 00 


28,900 00 


34,290 00 


32,850 00 


June . . 






16,750 00 


7,770 00 


12,225 00 


12,125 00 


2^S,975 00 


19,895 00 


July . . 






12,260 00 


12,060 00 


5,330 00 


4,830 00 


17,.590 00 


16,890 00 


August . 






4,5,30 00 


3,140 00 


3,780 00 


1,210 00 


8,310 00 


4,350 00 


September 






11,710 Oo 


11,110 00 


.39,890 00 


36,270 00 


51,600 00 


47,380 00 


October . 






7,460 00 


6,660 00 


11,280 00 


7,3)0 00 


18,740 00 


13,970 00 


November 






10,890 00 


9,900 00 


21, .585 00 


19,895 00 


32,475 00 


29,795 00 


December 






46,970 00 


46,880 00 


92,470 00 


89,790 00 


139,440 00 


136,670 00 


January . 






120,040 00 


115,500 00 


110,440 00 


100,500 00 


230,480 00 


216,000 00 


February 






5,410 00 


3,910 00 


18,035 00 


17,200 00 


23,445 00 


21,110 00 


March . . 






2,810 00 
$248,740 00 


2,360 00 
$227,245 00 


7,380 00 


7,030 00 


10,190 00 


9,390 00 


Total . 






.$358,185 00 


$330,780 00 


$606,925 00 


$558,025 00 



Total number of alarms 
Number of false alarms . 



Total number of alarms of actual fires 283 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 287 

The losses by fire in Berlin for 1872-3 amounted, as before said, to 
only $70,000. These figures are surely eloquent enough in favor of 
a substitution of the Gei-man for our system of fire-insurance. 

And now in regard to the life-insurance business. 

The present vicious life-insurance system by chartered corpora- 
tions, wliich usually wait for an opportune moment to become bank- 
rupt, and leave their too confiding customers in the lurch, after 
having sufficiently bled them, should also be at once abolished by 
law. This life-insurance business might be advantageously adminis- 
tered by the State and municipal governments, which would insure 
far greater economy than the present system, and, what is even more 
important, guarantee absolutely certain and speedy payment. 

This, however, need not interfere with the so-called cooperative, 
or benevolent insurance companies, which are altogether private 
societies, that practice insurance merely incidentally. How different 
the modus operandi of these societies is from that of the great char- 
tered life-insurance companies will appear from the following, which 
I quote from a pamphlet recently published on the subject hy Mr. 
Isidor Bush, of St. Louis : — 

" With how small an expense endowment funds for fraternal socie- 
ties can and should be managed, may be learned from the Jewish 
organizations of that kind. 

" District Grand Lodge No. 1, I. O. B. B., in New York, embraces 
over eight thousand members, in seventy lodges ; it paid during 1877 
sixty death-claims of $1,000 each=$60,000 ; its accumulated reserve- 
fund (though inadequate) is — January, 1878 — $32,984.82; its en- 
tire expense-account (proceedings, January, 1878, p. 64), $117.67; 
if you add to this one-half the salary of the Grand Lodge secretary 
and other officers, rent and general expenses of the Grand Lodge, the 
entire cost of management would still be less than $3,000. 

"The endowment fund of District Grand Lodge No. 2, I. O. B. B., 
is kept and managed by a separate board of trustees and secretary. 
Their fourth annual report (January, 1878) shows two thousand five 
hundred and forty-one members ; receipts, collected in four years 
from assessments and interest, $109,348 ; endowments paid, $65,000 ; 
reserve fund, investments at interest, $37,688 ; cash on hand, $3,389 ; 
entire expenses in four years, $3,270. 

"Similar economy prevails in others, showing such to be not only 



288 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

possible, but actnally practised. Assessments being uniform, notices 
of deaths and collections made monthly, at the close of ever}"- month, 
and to the lodges only, the correspondence and work of the endow- 
ment-fund secretary is so much simplified that a few leisure liours 
are quite sufHcient to do it promptly and well, and a very competent 
member can be easily induced to do it for a comparatively small com- 
pensation. But even in the Cincinnati Mutual Endowment Associa- 
tion, I. O. B. B., consisting of a voluntary membership of about 
twelve hundred and Mty individuals, the total expenditures of man- 
agement have been, during the ten j^ears of its existence, only 
$10,501, during which time it has paid to the families of its deceased 
members $181,220; or, in other words, the expenses amount to but 
five per cent of the benefits. They should not amount to more. Let 
no promises of future great results, of increase in benefits by the 
accession of new members, let no taunts about misguided economy 
deceive you. Ev^en misguided econom}^ is better than waste and 
corruption. Any endowment association where the cost of manage- 
ment is considei-ably larger than five per cent — and in some it is 
almost equal to the benefit — is no better than most of the life-insur- 
ance companies were which have lately passed out of existence. 

"Truly benevolent fraternal societies have no need of hired agents, 
who are paid commissions for soliciting and obtaining new members, 
or rather new risks, whose qualifications consist in the medical exam- 
iner's certificate. Organizations using such adjuncts were justly- 
refused to be recognized as truly benevolent associations, to whose 
primary objects of brotherly love a feature of mutual insurance may 
well be added, and who are not and will not be interfered with by 
either courts of law or legislatures." 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 



289 



The large amount of money invested in these life-insurance com- 
panies may be gathered from the following table : — 



New York Companies. 



Assets 

Liabilities 

Premiums 

Total income 

Death -claims and endowments . . . . 

Lapses and sun-enders 

Total payments 

New policies issued 

Amount thereof 

Terminated yf)licies — Amount thereof 

Number of pc^licies in force 

Insurance in force 



1S79. 


1878. 


Tivelve 


Fifteen 


Companies. 


Companies. 


$202,560,039 


$206,552,631 


169,607,694 


174,793,339 


30,025,213 


32,271,633 


41,158,408 


43,357,430 


14,318,971 


14,064,661 


7,502,656 


10,128,115 


35,086,206 


88,141,720 


34,263 


31,710' 


90.465,572 


87,627,832 


90,561,000 


116,473.647 


261,799 


258,706 


730,648,500 


721,744,888 



Other State Companies. 



Assets 

Liabilities 

Premiums 

Total income 

Death-claims and endowments 
Lapses and surrenders . . . . 

Total payments 

New policies 

Amount thereof 

Policies in force 

Insurance in force 




Or a total of life-insurance policies for 1879 — 

In New York companies. . $730,048,500 

In other State companies . 709,312,655 



Total $1,439,961,155 

Over fourteen hundred million dollars, on which the hopes of 
millions of families depend ! 

And finally, an end should be put to the abominable patent-right 
system, as it exists at present, which allows inventors to apply for an 
extension of their patents — the original term of which is fixed by 
law at seventeen years — for seven years longer, and then again for 
another seven years, and so on, ad mjinitum, upon pajanent of $50. 
This S3^stera has given rise to the most monstrous monopolies, of 
which I need only instance the Singer Sewing-Machine Company and 
the McCormick Reaper Company ; and, besides levying cruelly op- 
pressive taxes on the public, has fostered an outrageous system of 
bribing the Congress of the United States. When it is considered 

19 



290 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



that this patent business has doubled within the last thirteen years, 
the danger threatened by continuing the present system becomes at 
once apparent. It is right enough to secure the applicant a patent 
for a limited number of years in his invention, but after the expira- 
tion of that term there should be no reissue or extension. The fol- 
lowing table shows the growth of the United States patent-office 
business from 1837 to 1878: — 



Calendar Year. 



Appli- 
cations. 



Caveats 


Patents 


I'iled. 


Issued. 




435 




5-20 




425 


•228 


473 


312 


495 


391 


517 


315 


531 


380 


502 


452 


502 


448 


619 


553 


572 


607 


660 


595 


1,070 


602 


995 


760 


869 


996 


1,020 


901 


958 


868 


1,902 


906 


2,024 


1,024 


2,502 


1,010 


2,910 


934 


3,710 


1,097 


4,538 


1,084 


4,819 


700 


3,340 


824 


3,521 


787 


4,170 


1,063 


5,020 


1,937 


6,616 


2,723 


9,450 


3,597 


13,015 


3,705 


13,378 


3,624 


13,986 


3,273 


13,321 


3,366 


13,033 


3,090 


13,590 


3,248 


12,864 


3,181 


13,599 


3,094 


16,288 


2,697 


17,026 


2,809 


13,619 


2,755 


12,935 



Cash 
lieoeived. 



Cash 
Expended. 



Surplus. 



1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 
1841 
1842 
1843 
1844 
1845 
J 846 
1S47 
1848 
1849 
1850 
1851 
1852 
1853 
1854 
1855 
1856 
1857 
1858 
1859 
1860 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 



735 

847 

761 

819 

1,045 

1,246 

1,272 

1,531 

1,628 

1,955 

2,193 

2,258 

2,639 

2,673 

3,324 

4,435 

4,960 

4,771 

5,364 

6,225 

7,653 

4,643 

5,038 

6,014 

6,932 

10,664 

15,269 

21,276 

30,420 

19,271 

19,171 

19,472 

18,246 

20,414 

21,602 

21,638 

21,425 

20,308 

20,260 



P9,289 08 

42,123 54 

37,260 00 

38,056 51 

40,413 01 

36,505 68 

35,315 81 

42,509 26 

51,076 14 

50,264 16 

63,111 19 

67,576 69 

80,752 98 

86,927 05 

95,738 61 

112,656 34 

121,527 45 

163,789 84 

216,459 35 

192,588 02 

196,132 01 

203,716 16 

245,942 15 

256,352 59 

137,354 44 

215,754 99 

195,593 29 

240,919 98 

348,791 84 

495,665 38 

646,581 92 

681,565 86 

693,145 81 

669,456 76 

678,716 46 

699,726 39 

703,191 77 

738,278 17 

743,453 36 

757,987 85 

732,342 85 

725,375 55 



$33,506 98 

37,402 10 

34,.543 51 

39,020 67 

52,666 87 

31,241 48 

30,776 96 

36,244 73 

39,395 65 

46,158 71 

41,878 35 

58,905 84 

77,716 44 

80,100 95 

86,916 93 

• 95,916 91 

132,869 83 

167,146 32 

179,540 33 

199,931 02 

211,582 09 

193,193 74 

210,278 41 

252,820 80 

221,491 91 

182,810 39 

189,414 14 

229,868 00 

274,199 34 

.361,724 28 

639,263 32 

628,679 77 

486,430 78 

557,149 19 

560,595 OS 

665,.591 36 

691,178 98 

679,288 41 

721,657 71 

652,542 60 

613,152 62 

593,082 89 



$4,721 44 
2,716 49 



5,264 20 
4,538 85 
6,264 53 

11,680 49 
4,105 45 

21,232 84 
8,670 85 
3,036 54 
6,816 13 
8,821 60 

16,739 48 



36,919 02 



10,522 42 
35,663 74 
3,531 79 



32,944 60 

6,179 15 

11,051 98 

74,592 50 

133,941 10 

7,318 60 

52,886 09 

206,715 03 

112,307 57 

118,121 38 

34,135 03 

12,012 79 

58,989 76 

21,795 65 

105,445 05 

119,190 23 

132,292 66 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 291 

C H A P T E K IV. 

THE TARIFF. 

Now, the tariff is nothing but precisely such another indirect mode 
of taxation, and has its chief support in the absurd reluctance of men 
to look things boldly in the face and tax themselves directly for their 
necessary expenses. The other notion which sustains it — that it is a 
means of protection to the manufactures of a State — is simply an 
error of judgment; but the notion, that it is a legitimate means of 
raising revenue, is sheer absurdity. Both of these notions will have 
to be swept away with all other superstitions ; and commerce between 
nations must be made as free as it is between our separate States, 
and as it was originally, before despots found it a very effective 
means in an indirect way to increase the revenues of direct taxation 
and plunder. 

So far as our own country is concerned, we can effect this even 
now, at any time. It only needs courage. So far as other nations 
are concerned, the adoption of my international code by such nations 
as are desirous to join the proposed international federation would 
surely pave the way for free trade over the whole extent of the globe. 
The Geneva arbitration, in its settlement of the fishery question, has 
already shown — what, indeed, Cobden's Anglo-French alliance had 
before demonstrated — that this is not a visionary proposition, but 
easily made actual, and sure to result in prosperity for the people. 

Indeed, it may be laid down as an axiom, that the prosperity of a 
country increases in proportion as all shackles on commerce and 
interchange between men are removed. The issue of paper money, 
such as I propose, is one of the means to remove them ; the control 
of railroads, establishment of canals, and improvements of rivers and 
lakes is another ; and the abolition of all duties, in every shape, is the 
third. It has so proved in the cases of England and France, as it 
has proved in our own case among the several States. 

Indeed, one of the strongest arguments brought forward in behalf 
of this Union, at the time of its establishment, was, as I have stated 
before, that it would cement all the States together into one commer- 
cial free-trading body, — from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and along 
ever}^ point of the mighty Mississippi River Valley. Now, if there 
were an}^ truth in the protection theory, would not this, our commer- 



292 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

cial unity, of which we so loudly boast, be an unbearable curse? 
Ought not every State, nay, every county and every city in every 
State, be allowed to form a commercial unity of its own, and levy a 
tariff or octroi of its own, for its own exclusive benefit? But if this 
is not e o, and if free trade is the proper principle for the thirty-eight 
States and ten Territories of this republic of ours, then it must alsa 
be the proper principle for our commercial intercourse with the other 
nations of the earth. 

Originally, the tariff system was adopted by the founders of our 
republic in order to pay, by its means, all the expenses of govern- 
ment, without making the then new Union odious in the minds of the 
people by a direct taxation. It was this fear of directness which led 
to the establishment and continuance of the tariff. During the war 
of 1812, duties were increased to pay the expenses resulting from it,. 
but soon after they were again lowered ; and this policy was continued 
until 1860, when the average duties did not exceed fourteen per 
cent, a little higher than those of Great Britain, whereas now the 
average duties are fifty per cent, or nearly four times as much, — a. 
most excessive and burdensome tax, levied in a burdensome manner 
upon the people, and costing man}?^ millions of dollars to collect. 

It was the late civil war that again led to this excessive increase of 
duties, which now average fifty per cent on all dutiable articles, and 
weigh most oppressively upon the laboring classes of the country. 
Nor were the manufacturing interests slow to avail themselves of this- 
new policy, and to accumulate vast fortunes by the profits thus 
opened to them. 

These profits were naturally a tribute levied upon the people that 
had to purchase the manufactured wares. The people thus had to 
pay, and continue to pay, a double tax, — one to the government in 
the shape of duties, and another one to the manufacturers in the 
shape of increased cost of productions. 

It is this inequitable phase of the tariff that has made it so odious 
as finally to arouse the people to emphatic protest against its continu- 
ance, and to a demand for the immediate removal of all shackles upon 
the commercial intercommunication of the various nations of the 
world. 

To illustrate : In the State of Illinois there are 376,441 persons 
engaged in agriculture and 58,852 in manufacture, while in the State 
of Massachusetts 279,380 persons are engaged in manufacture, and 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 293 

only 72,810 cultivate farms. The total value of all the products of 
the 376,441 Illinois farmers for the year 1870 is estimated at $210,- 
860,580, thus averaging the annual earnings of every farmer at $560. 
For the same year the total value of all the products of 279,380 manu- 
facturers of Massachusetts is estimated at $553,912,568, which leaves 
a remainder, after deducting the estimated value of materials used in 
the manufactures, — $334,413,982, —of $219,498,586, or an average' 
annual earning of each manufacturer of $749. 

Now, this would be perfectly fair and legitimate if the manufacturer 
■of Massachusetts sold his wares at the same price at which the Illinois 
farmer could procure them from other sources. But this he does 
not. He sells them for about fifty per cent higher rates, and the 
United States government enables him to do so successfully by im- 
posing a tariff of such percentage upon foreign wares of similar kind 
"that seek a market here. The United States government thereby 
compels the Illinois farmer, whose annual earnings are only $560, to 
pay the Massachusetts manufacturer an average of fifty per cent 
more than a fair price upon his wares, in order that his annual earn- 
ings may realize $749. This is certainly not an equal administration 
of the law, and, besides being unjust, tends to the creation of those 
large manufacturing monopolies that, in the Eastern States, threaten 
the liberties of the people as much as the railway monopolies threaten 
those of the agricultural and commercial communities, and that grow 
powerful, as has been shown, by the indirect tax which a tariff enables 
them to levy upon the people at large by the increased price of their 
products. 

But even in this protective element of the tariff its intended effect 
in some cases overleaps itself, and becomes ruinous both to the man- 
ufacturer and the consumer. Perhaps the most striking instance is 
that of wools and woollen goods, the duties on which now average 
at the enormous figui-es of from fifty to one hundred and fifty per 
cent ad valorem. If this duty did really protect manufacturers, how 
•could it have come to pass that the woollen industry was never so de- 
pressed as at present, and that more people than ever wear woollen 
goods imported from foreign countries? » 

If the tariff really effected what it was intended to effect, — the fos- 
tering of our manufacturing interests, — how could it happen that in no 
recent period in the history of the United States have we had less 



294 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

exports and more imports than we had in 1872, when the tariff 
system was most flourishing? The products of manufactures 
that we tlien exported were scarcely worth mentioning. Of the 
$176,000,000 increase of exports from 1860 to 1872, $170,000,000 
were composed of breadstuffs, coin, provisions, lumber, etc., leaving 
only $6,000,000 of manufactured wares for those years under the 
operation of the high protective tariff that was to effect such mag- 
nificent results. Even our export of shoes had fallen off, despite the 
wonderful progress that had been made of late years in their man- 
ufacture. Thus, instead of making us more independent in indus- 
trial matters of Europe, the effect worked by a high tariff had been 
precisely the reverse, besides ruining our whole commercial marine, 
lowering the percentage of carriage of foreign trade by our ships 
from seventy-one per cent in 1860 to only about thirty per cent in 
1871. And at the present time the German Empire, under Bismarck's' 
direction, is seriously considering the proposition to shut off its ports 
against the commerce of the United States, by means of a high tariff, 
as the only effective protection against the high protective tariff of 
the United States, which virtually excludes importations from Ger- 
many. 

Our trade with Southern Africa and La Plata is broken up because 
we cannot import the wool of those countries at the enormous duty 
now levied on it, and our ships cannot afford to carry there petro- 
leum, fish, flour, etc., unless they have a return cargo. Our ships 
cannot go to Spain, Italy, West India, etc., because we cannot im- 
port salt with the present tariff, although imported salt is far superior 
to our own for the preservation of meat and fish. The importation 
of wool fell from eighty-eight million pounds in 1864 to twenty-three 
millions in 1868, and the importation of salt from four hundred and 
six thousand to two hundred thousand tons in the same time. 

There ought to be really no dispute on this point. Historically, it 
was the principle of free trade which proved the most eflScient agent 
in bringing the people of the old Confederacy to adopt the plan of 
the new Union. No argument appealed with so tangible a force to 
their apprehension of the vast benefits that must result from the 
Union as this one of the removal of all restrictions upon commerce 
between the several States of the Union in the way of duties and im- 
posts. This great principle of free trade has since then extended 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 295 

from thirteen to our present thirty- eight States, — States as indus- 
trially different from each other as they are when compared with 
foreign States, and embracing all classes and conditions of labor, — and 
still the same grand results of prosperity and comfort have followed 
it. No principle, again, was so effective in arousing the people at the 
outbreak of the civil war to resist the secession of any part of the 
country than this of free trade, and the consequent fear of having 
clogs put on the wheels of commercial intercourse by the success of 
the secession movement. The whole West protested against the 
notion of breaking up free trade on the Mississippi River. It would 
be a paradox to repudiate that principle in its application to foreign 
States. 

Again, when the city of Chicago was burnt in that great confla- 
gration, from the ruins of which it has in so short a time sprung up 
again in greater strength and beauty than before, the people of the 
suffering city iiBmediately petitioned Congress to remove the pro- 
tective duties on all the articles needed in the rebuilding, thereby 
acknowledging at once the great relief which that removal would ex- 
tend to them. What grand benefits would be realized by all man- 
kind if that removal of duties upon commerce could be made 
universal over the whole world, and thereby a main source of inter- 
national hostility be removed! The adoption of my proposition for 
an international federation would doubtless bring this result about 
in a very short time, for every nation would perceive the immense 
advantages of universal free-trade upon its prosperity and wealth. 

Meanwhile, in our own country it is within our power to take the 
initial step by abolishing our whole tariff system, with its frauds and 
oppressions, and creations of monopolies, as soon as we are able to 
pay off or redeem our bonds with the money of the, country, to be 
issued for that purpose, as I have proposed should be done at the 
earliest day possible. 

It is now very generally conceded that a tariff works gross injus- 
tice, operating as it does unequally upon citizens of the same State 
as well as upon the different States, and tending greatly to decrease 
international commerce. Let us take as an instance our commercial 
relations with Canada. In 1866 the United States government abro- 
gated the reciprocity treaty of 1854, which had existed between this 
country and Canada, and imposed a tax of twenty-five per cent as an 



296 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



average on articles that had previously been admitted free. The 
result was as follows : — 



Year. 




Exports 
from 
United 
States. 


1S5S-54 .... 


$8,927,560 
15,136,734 
21,310,421 
22,124,295 
15,806,519 
19,727,551 
23,851,381 
23,062,933 
19,299,995 
24,021,264 
38,922,015 
38,820,969 
54,714,383 


$24,566,860 


1854-55 


27,806,020 


1855 56 . 


29,029,349 


1856 57 


24,262,482 


1857 58 . . 


23,651,727 


1858 59 ..... 


28,154,174 


1859 60 ' '• 


22,706,328 


1860 61 ,.,... 


22,745,613 


1861-63 


21,079,115 


186'' 63 . - ■ 


31,281,030 


1863 64 . ... 


29,987,147 


18fi4 65 


32,553,847 


1865-66 ' 


29,356,572 



This shows that under the free-trade principle our imports from 
Canada increased from about nine millions in 1854 to six times that 
amount in 1866, and that, according to the same ratio of increase, 
our imports ought to amount now to about $125,000,000. But, 
instead of that, they are considerably less than they were in 1866, as 
the following table will show : — 



Year. 


Imports to 
United 
States. 


Exports 
from 
United 
States. 


1866 67 


$33,604,178 
30,362,221 
32,990,314 
41,089,801 
37,424,351 
40,961,432 
43.809,070 
48,000,000 


$24,3-23,169 




26,262,273 


1868 69 


25,197,232 


1869 70 


26,849,324 


1870 71 -. 


34,502,726 


1871 72 


32,759,080 


187'' 73 , 


38,572,556 


1877-78* 


35,000,000 



* Estiuiated. 

This, however, is only one item ; for it must also be observed, 
that whereas during the first ten years of the operation of the 
reciprocity treaty our exports to Canada exceeded our imports by 
$62,013,545, the abrogation of that treaty turned the balance of 
trade steadily against us. Then, again, those imports are mainly 
composed of ordinary necessaries of life: lumber, coal, wool, fish, 
breadstuffs, grain, flour, cheese, vegetables, and animals of all kinds ; 
articles which Canada now exports to other countries, that are sensible 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 



297 



enough to gather in the profits which we now foolishly deny to oar 
traders by the bar of a tariff, and which are specially demanded by 
that section of our country which in the East most closely adjoins 
Canada. Is it a wonder that such an unnatural state of things en- 
courages, one of the meanest crimes, — smuggling, — and in this way 
tends to corrupt the whole border population of our Northern States? 
Bat another instance of the gross inequality which the tariff system 
works upon the different sections of our country is thus aptly sum- 
marized by a recent writer on the subject: — 

"■We proceed to show how the national burden is borne by the 
leading States of the East as compared with the leading States of the 
"West. The following table gives the population in 1870, the wealth, 
and the amount per cajnta : — 



states. 


Population. 


Wealth. 


Per 
Capita. 




1,457,35] 
217,?.53 
537,454 

4.382,759 
906,096 

3,521,951 


$3,132,148,741 
296,965,646 
774,631,520 

6,500,841,264 
940,976,064 

3,808,340,112 


$1,456 
1,366 
1,441 
1,483 
1,038 
1,081 




Connecticut 


New York 

New Jersey 




Total 


11,022,964 


$14,453,903,347 


$1,311 



"In contrast with these States take the following six leading States 
of the West : — 



states. 


PoX>ulation. 


Wealth. 


Per 
Capita. 


Ohio , 


2,665,260 
2,539,891 
1,721,295 
1,680,637 
1,321,011 
1,184,059 


$2,235,430,300 

2,121,680,579 

1,284,922,897 

1,268,180,543 

604,318,552 

719,208,118 


$839 
835 
741 
755 
457 
607 


Illinois 


Missouri 


Indiana 


Kentucky 




Total 


11,1 12,153 


$8,233,740,989 


$741 



Excess of people in the West, 89,189. Excess of wealth in the East, $6,220,162,358. 

' ' This gives nearly one per cent more of people in the West, and 
seventy-seven per cent more of wealth in the East. So that, in pro- 
portion to wealth, the national treasury receives $1.77 from the West 
for every $1 received from the East, making no account for the differ- 
ence of population. 

" But this is not all : the ave'rage rate of all our imports and excises 
is, say, sixty per cent. On whiskey it is two hundred. On blankets, 



298 LIBERTSr AND LAW. 

flannels, broadcloths and pilot-cloths, cassimeres and doeskins, woollen 
dress-goods, silk manufactures, gunny-bags, and cloth, the rate ranges 
from sixty to one hundred and forty per cent, it being but sixty on 
silks. Importers and producers pay the duties in advance, and there- 
fore sixty per cent more of capital is required in trade, in production, 
and in distribution through the wholesale and retail dealers. 

"Without imposts or excises, the cost of products to the consumer 
would be as follows : — 

First cost to importer or producer $1 00 

Ten per cent to importer or producer 10 

Ten per cent to wholesaler 11 

Twenty per cent to retailer 24 

Total under free trade $1 45 

With duties at an average of sixty per cent, the cost is : — ■ 

First cost, as above f 1 00 

Duty . 60 

Percentages, as above 72 

Total $2 32 

Total under free trade 1 45 

Extra cost on account of duty 87 

"Thus, under our system of taxation, it costs the people of the 
country $127,000,000 to get $100,000,000 into the treasury. This 
shows the great wastefulness of the system. By increasing the 
amount of capital required in trade and the industries fully sixty per 
cent, it throws business into fewer hands, thereby diminishing com- 
petition and increasing the cost of products to the people. Hence, 
in this regard it is a swindle of sections with less property, and still 
more of persons of little or no propert3^ 

"As it costs the West seventy-seven per cent more in supporting 
the government than it costs the East, in proportion to wealth, seventy- 
seven per cent must be added to the cost of the profits to importers, 
producers, and dealers, on products consumed in the West. This 
gives $147,790,000 as the cost to the West on $100,000,000 of reve- 
nue. To this add the $77,000,000 extra cost of $100,000,000 of 
revenue, on the score of seventy-seven per cent less propert}^ and we 
have displayed the inequality of the system in the proportion of 
), 790,000 to $127,000,000 as between the West and the East." 



TAXATION, DUTIES, AND IMPOSTS. 299 

In conclusion, let me ask: How did the notion of obtaining reve- 
nue by means of a tariff first arise? It is simply a relic of barbarism, 
and traces its origin to the worst period of the feudal age, when each 
petty owner of a castle on a crag adjoining a highway stopped the 
luckless commercial travellers that were compelled to pass through 
his domain, and forced them to pay what he dignifiedly called a 
tribute, for the privilege of passing on without broken bones, muti- 
lated noses and ears, and other like amenities. Ought the American 
nation to perpetuate such a system of public robbery, especially 
when that nation itself never would have been brought into existence 
but for the purpose of abrogating that system? And the internal- 
revenue system, with its taxation on beer, highwines, tobacco, paper, 
etc., is but another form of the same system of public robbery. 

As matters stand under the present tariff, each reader of a news- 
paper, or of a book, as well as each writer, from the most gifted 
author down to the scribbling school-boy, is robbed of an extra charge 
on the paper he uses, for the benefit of a very few paper-manu- 
facturing monopolists ; and the consumer of any kind of iron-ware, 
from an iron spoon up to a ponderous locomotive, is in the same way 
tariff- taxed for the benefit of a few iron-manufacturers. 

A system so iniquitous in all its features, assuredly should be abro- 
gated without further argument or discussion. 



CHAPTEE V. 



CONCLUDING EEMARKS. 



With all the objections to our present mode of taxation and to our 
revenue system, outlined in the foregoing chapters, it is certainly 
surprising, that no steps have as 3'et been taken to establish an abso- 
lute system of taxation, operating equally upon all citizens, such as 
I have suggested in the substitution of an income-tax, judiciously 
graduated, to take the place of the countless oppressive modes of 
taxation now resorted to. 

I am well aware that no system is more unpopular as yet, and that 
an income-tax is here, as well as in England, the hete noir of tax- 
payers. They will uncomplainingly pay enormous rates of taxation 



300 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

when levied upon tnem through means of a tariff and internal-revenue 
taxes on spirits, beer, wines, tobacco, and all the other articles on 
the prescribed list ; nay, there is even comparatively little grumbling 
when taxes are levied on their real property. But direct taxation on 
their annual income is held in holy horror, even by the agricultural 
classes, who suffer most under the present system. It is impossible 
to make the farmers understand that they are specially interested in 
having such a graduated income-tax established, and that they are 
the chief sufferers now, when they must pay full taxes on their real 
property, while the owners of personal property and the professional 
recipients of lucrative incomes in cities pay only a small part of the 
amount they ought justly to paj', and rich and powerful corporations 
and monopolies pay still less in proportion, or contrive to escape tax- 
ation altogether, even like the bondholders. 

But in order to make my proposed system of an income-tax per- 
fectly effective, its establishment must be accompanied by measures 
which will render it impossible that taxation should ever become so 
oppressive as to lead to repudiation of taxes altogether. Make a tax 
oppressive, and it will bring in next to nothing. A heavy tariff is as 
good as no tariff at all, so far as the revenue is concerned, since it 
almost necessitates smuggling, — a source of general demoralization, — 
and thus the emploj'ment of a number of detectives, whose salaries 
swallow up whatever duties are collected on the goods not smuggled 
in. An oppressive tax on the valuation of real or personal property 
inevitabl}'^ leads to lying and false swearing. Unjust and extravagant 
taxation, finally, which arises from the incurrence of exorbitant 
public debts by cities, counties, or States, leads to general repudia- 
tion. These are facts which it is impossible to dispute, and which 
no legislation, however skilfully applied, can remove. The only 
remedy is to extirpate that general aversion to the payment of income- 
taxes which thus drives otherwise honest men to perjury and repudi- 
ation, by removing its causes: the injustice of the present mode of 
taxation, and the oppressiveness of the taxes themselves. The 
former object we can accomplish by substituting general income-taxes 
for the numberless modes of taxation now in force ; the latter object 
necessitates legal measures, that maj^ at the moment seem altogether 
incompatible with our American notions of the powers inherent in 
ever}'- municipal government, but which, I believe, will prove indis- 
pensable in the removal of one of the most serious evils under which 



TAXATION, DUTIES,' AND IMPOSTS. 301 

we suffer. Every State constitutional convention hereafter assem- 
bling shonld prohibit the State itself, and every county and city 
■within its limits, from contracting any further bonded debts. If 
money is needed for public improvements, let the amount required 
be raised at once by taxation. It is absurd to argue that the tax- 
paying people would object to such a procedure, on the plea that the 
future generations ought to bear a part of the expense incurred by 
the present age for permanent public improvements ; for this propo- 
sition involves as great a mathematical fallacy as ever was proposed. 
For it is very evident that a generation of thirty years must pay a 
public debt thus incurred, not only once, but twice or threefold, as- 
interest, and then tui'n it over unpaid to the coming generations. 
Tliis is especially the case where the rate of interest is so high as it 
is in the United States. 

With the exception of a few favorite municipalities, a cit}^ or 
county which issues bonds for some scheme of public improve- 
ments — generally put forward in the interest of contractors — has 
to pay from eight to ten per cent interest (counting in commissions). 
Now, the interest on such a bond will equal in from seven to tea 
years, and more than equal if compounded, — that is, if new bonds 
have to be issued for the payment of the interest, as is usually the 
case, — the entire sum of the principal loan. Hence a thirty 3'ears' 
generation will have paid in that time more than three times the 
amount of the debt in interest, and still leave the debt unpaid. 

In short, the only honest, and at the same time most economical 
. system for the administration of public finances is the same as that 
for the management of private finances, — always to live within our 
income, and never to borrow money for the improvement of our 
property. Put aside the interest, and in a few years there will be 
money enough in the treasury to pay for the improvements. 

But there is still another feature connected with the tariff system 
which deserves special attention at the present time. 

By keeping up our present protective tariff we unite all Europe 
against our exports, as a sort of retaliatory measure. The German 
Empire, which suffers the most from our tariff system, naturally leads 
the van ; and, as I have said before, it is no longer a diplomatic secret, 
that Bismarck is agitating a united European blockade against Ameri- 
can commerce, just as Napoleon blockaded that of Great Britain in 
1807. 



302 LIBEETY AND LAW. 



IIN^TERCOMMUOTCATIO^ BY THE PRESS. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE PEESS. 



The original conception of a newspaper was, as its name indicates, 
that of a publication which should contain the authentic and latest 
news of public interest that could be ascertained and collected for 
circulation. Prior to the invention of types for printing, such papers 
were written and copied for distribution, necessarily to a very limited 
extent. But since the discovery of the art of printing and the appli- 
cation of steam as a motive power for the printing-press, the publica- 
tion and circulation of newspapers has assumed vast proportions, as 
a general means for intercommunication between all citizens and 
peoples. 

This most wonderful discovery of modern times for the general 
dissemination of intelligence throughout the world has thus multi- 
plied the old methods of communicating ideas and news more than a 
million-fold, illumining the darkest districts of the world, and opening 
to the people a new era of universal intelligence, instruction, and 
progress. So long as these newspapers were managed simply for the 
dissemination of truthful information, their influence was always in 
favor of the freedom of the human race ; but the extraordinary exten- 
sion of the circulation of printed newspapers initiated a great change 
in their nature and character. Formerly, men who, from their high 
culture and wisdom, felt authorized to give publicit}^ to their indi- 
vidual opinions on public questions, did so in pamphlets, over their 
own signatures. The newspapers had not yet attempted to control 
public opinion for private personal aggrandizement or persecution, 
and the pamphlets exercised no further influence than the strength 
of their facts or arguments justified. Their readers were invited only 
to the exercise of self- thinking and individual judgment. 



INTERCOMMUNICATION BY THE PRESS. 303 



CHAPTER n. 

THE DEMOEALIZATION OF THE PEESS. 

During that first period of its existence, while the newspaper 
remained the faithful advocate of the eternal truths of human liberty 
and pi'Ogress, and the medium of truthful news from all parts of the 
world, it was a great public blessing. It then had no essential con- 
nection with the publisher, who was only expected to have a talent 
for the organization of news-gathering, and the editorial columns 
were open to the most learned men and scholars of the age for com- 
ments upon all new discoveries, reforms, and other matters of public 
concern ; but as the circulation of the newspapers extended, — partly 
owing to an increased desire of the people for the latest news, and 
partly to the introduction of business advertisements, — and as their 
proprietors thus grew rich and powerful, it occurred to them to 
increase their power by making the newspaper not only a vehicle for 
news, but also for partisan comment upon all questions. This was 
especially notable in those countries that encouraged opposing politi- 
cal parties, like France, England, and the United States. 

Thus the owner of an established journal would increase the circu- 
lation of his paper by permitting it to become the "organ" of a 
political party, or some ambitious partisan would purchase or set up 
a newspaper to communicate his views and direct the judgment and 
opinions of the multitude for his own aggrandizement ; both parties 
accomplishing their objects under the impersonal name and character 
of a "Globe," "Post," "World," "Times," "Enquirer," "Ar- 
gus," etc. 

When this state of things began to develop itself, the issuing of 
pamphlets, wherein important political questions could be discussed 
in a thorough and statesmanlike manner, gradually ceased, and in 
their place came the flippant, abusive, scurrilous, and irresponsible 
"editorial." It is onlj' in France that this department retained 
character and responsibility, in the requirement of having the author's 
name attached to every article. 

In Great Britain and the United States, however, the editorial was 
used to a great extent simply as a party instrument ; and, as its license 
grew by toleration, became soon a means whereby to vent all the 



304 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

personal favoritism or malice which the proprietor or his friends 
might entertain towards any one of any party. 

The inherent love of scandal, of reading vile charges against a 
neighbor, which animates all base characters, lent a support to this 
department of the newspaper, and in course of time made it a promi- 
nent feature. The paper now was read, not so much for the news 
it contained as for the malice of its editorials, or the spitefulness of 
its local paragraphs. Private life became grossly and indecently 
exposed to public animadversion in the press, and the most insig- 
nificant scribbler of items usurped the power to make a sensitive 
person's existence insupportable, and to destroy the best man's repu- 
tation by continued scurrilous mention. This sort of newspaper 
poisoning and assassination has grown so common, and is carried on 
so audaciously by mendacious, blackmailing, piratical newspaper 
buccaneers, that nowadays our noblest minds and best scholars shrink 
from entrance into public life as from a pest-house. 

Whenever a growing despotism or monopoly intends to usurp 
powers that are granted to no individual person, it hides its serpent's 
coils under the mask of an assumed impersonal name. The editors 
of this class of newspapers found this impersonal feature read}^ at 
hand in the title of their organs. This feature they therefore retained 
and impressed into their use. It was no longer the individual Mr. 
A. or B. who uttered an opinion upon matters modestly over his own 
name, but an impersonal oracle, a "Mercury," or "Sun," or "In- 
dependent," that thundered forth its denunciations with the tone of 
an inspired prophet, and as the legitimate and recognized expounder 
of universal public opinion. 

The unknown always excites fear ; all superstition has its root in, 
and thrives upon this cowardly fear of the unknown. Now, the news- 
paper has become, in its worst specimens, very similar in its terrors 
to such an unknown power, — of uttering, in grandiloquent phrases, 
its hurtful praise, its ill-considered judgments, its slanders of good 
men, and its personal mahce. 

One needs but to turn over some of the specimens of this class of 
papers of the past, and glance at the venomous slanders and scandals 
raised against Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Paine, 
Adams, Jackson, Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Benton, and others of our 
noblest patriots, to reahze the extent of shamelessness to which this 
was carried on, even in the early times of newspaper development. 



INTERCOMMUNICATION BY THE PRESS. 305 

Nor was there any redress ; for if any outraged person appealed to 
the law for protection, the newspapers of this class, however much 
opposed to each other before, straightway combined to raise a hue 
and cry against the injured man, as one who would interfere with the 
" liberty of the press ! " 

For this impersonal title of "the press" had been invented and 
was now used to cover the multitudinous impersonalities of all news- 
papers whatsoever, uniting them, for popular effect, under one general 
organization, claiming immunity from all control of the law; and thus 
a few publishers and editors of that class — few in comparison with 
the millions of other citizens — were gradually allowed to usurp a 
license and tja-anny which has become one of the most distressing 
features of our age. Not only does it deter the wisest and purest 
men of our nation from entering into public life, but it enables dema- 
gogues to take State and Federal offices, upon pledges that they will 
support the monopolists, the party, and "the press." 

In monarchical counti'ies the governments no sooner became aware 
of the despotism of "the press" than they hastened to check it by 
an exercise of their own tyrannic power, either by suppressing the 
newspapers altogether, or by establishing a censorship over them. 
As a further protection, they have frequently established official 
newspapers of their own. 

But in our country the worst class of such newspapers have had 
the broadest scope for mischief imaginable ; each party organ en- 
deavoring, to the best of its ability, to misrepresent the actual news, 
or facts, when considered adverse to its own interests or the interests 
of its supporters, and imposing upon its readers by the assumption 
of the royal "We," as if it were the sole organ of "the press." At 
the same time the indiscriminate publication of all sorts of so-called 
news, consisting chiefly of reports of immoral fictions, of adultery,, 
seductions, rapes, I'obberies, and murders, has had such a tendency 
to deprave the minds of the people, brutalize their tastes, familiarize 
them with crime, and confuse their moral judgments, as to excite the 
liveliest apprehensions of all good men, parents, and guardians con- 
cerning its demoralizing effects upon the rising generation. 

True, there have been at all times, and now are, many noble 
exceptions in "the press," just as there are among the money and 
railway despots ; but I have described the general system of partisan 
publication, it being the object of this work to expose all forms of 

20 



306 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

despotism and monopoly, and their principal agencies, under what- 
ever cloak they may try to hide themselves. 

To what extent the evils attendant upon this form of abuse of 
public intercommunication by " the press " can be checked and pun- 
ished by law, is a question that deserves the most serious consideration 
of every friend of genuine individual freedom ; for only by its 
effective check can each individual be secured in that sanctity of 
private life which to most people is of the most inestimable value. 
This is not the place to point out what legal methods might be 
employed, and these historical and critical remarks have been made 
simply with a view to introduce to public consideration an important, 
affirmative duty of a rational State organization. I may, however, 
point out one such method : a means which is, in fact, prescribed by 
the duty of perfecting the public intercommunication between its 
citizens by the publication of daily official newspapers, so as to fur- 
nish them an authentic history of the events of each day, without 
editorial comments, and without any charge or expense to the 
citizens. 



CHAPTER III. 

A DAILY NATIONAL NEWSPAPER. 

It is the duty of government to make known all its laws, official 
and judicial decisions, and public proceedings, at the earliest possible 
moment, to all its citizens, since no one should be required to obey 
laws of which he has had no reasonable opportunity to inform him- 
self. And when the government assumes, as I propose it should, 
control of all the methods of transmitting news, it becomes a duty for 
it to make known to the citizens at once all the news communicated 
from any part of the world. 

Grovernmeut ought not to leave this important branch of intercom- 
munication to private citizens or monopolies, whose self-interest or 
corrupt motives may be in direct opposition to the welfare of the 
people ; partly for its own sake, since it is primarily interested in a 
continuous and reliable transmission of news from all parts of the 
world, and partly because it is bound to protect the people against 
false information or imposition on matters so important to their gen- 



INTERCOMMUNICATION BY THE PRESS. 307 

eral welfare. Besides, as under the system of government advanced 
in this work, the national government would obtain exclusive and 
absolute control of the telegraph, it alone could guarantee the cor- 
rectness of the news received by that great medium of transmitting 
information ; and yet it could do this vastly cheaper than it is pos- 
sible to do it under the present system. 

The government of the United States should, therefore, establish 
a daily newspaper publication, by means of which to make known to 
all citizens: firstly, all measures, decisions, laws, proceedings, and 
accounts of its various departments, so that no one can plead igno- 
rance of their existence or be debarred from the strictest scrutiny 
into their nature ; and, secondly, all the news that may be transmitted 
b}'^ mail or telegraph to the various departments of the government. 

By such a daily publication, all the official acts of our government 
and of foreign governments concerning the public interests ; all stock 
quotations, prices of products, etc. ; each new financial regulation ; 
every change in the money-issue ; all new laws made, or proposed to 
be made ; all acts, decisions, measures, and proceedings of the vari- 
ous departments, offices, and bureaus ; all governmental contracts ; 
all accounts of expenses, classified for publication at stated intervals ; 
all sales of public lands, of property, etc. ; all patent-rights granted, 
extended, or renewed ; all advertisements of contracts ; the weekly 
imports and exports, and other matters appertaining to the adminis- 
tration of our public affairs, would be accurately communicated to 
the public at large in the most authentic and prompt manner. More- 
over, all the scientific discoveries of the universities, academies of 
science. State and National institutions, etc. ; all reports of weather, 
of electric and magnetic phenomena ; of scientific, educational, hygi- 
enic, and commercial news, analytically classified and indexed at stated 
periods, would thus be made immediately and generally known. 

This daily newspaper would thus become, of necessity, the vehicle 
of publishing annual official statistics for the whole United States. 
The last census has abundantly shown — if it had not been known 
before — that a ten-year census is an absurdity, especially for a 
nation so growing and expansive as that of the United States. We 
need a census every year ; and if the national government undertakes 
such a census, the several States, their counties, cities, and school- 
districts, may be very advantageously relieved of a useless and finan- 
cially oppressive burden. 



308 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

Such a national newspaper, therefore, in addition to furnishing the 
people with accurate statements of all news and events transpiring in 
the world, would give publicit}^ to all the expenses, income, contracts^ 
and transactions of all departments of the government, and enable 
the citizens to detect all errors, extravagance, and defalcations in 
official statements of accounts, whereby the present alarming frauds, 
perpetrated on all sides would be effectually arrested and pre- 
vented. 

By this simple measure of giving the public full knowledge of all 
official operations, and three months' notice of all new laws proposed 
to be presented at the next succeeding session of Congress, the whole 
rotten system of class legislation, moreover, would be terminated,, 
and the principal causes of official demoralization removed. Nor 
would judges be longer kept in the dark for months, as they of tea 
are now, as to whether or not certain acts of Congress have been 
passed, etc. 

In like manner, each State and populous municipal corporation! 
should have a daily newspaper, to be conducted upon similar princi- 
ples and for the same objects, without any editorial comments. It is- 
the truth the people want, and they should be protected from the 
organized mendacity of the corrupt portion of °" the press" bjT^ a 
truthful publication of all matters of public concern, so that they may 
form their own opinions, and examine thoroughly for themselves all 
questions, accounts, and things whatsoever concerning the operations- 
of the State and Federal governments. 

Such a system of official publication would render impossible the 
occurrence of such scenes as those reported in the proceedings of the 
United States Senate a few years ago, during which Senator Morrill 
submitted the following as a substitute for the resolution of Senator 
Davis : — 

'■'•Resolved^ That a committee of three be appointed to investigate 
the finance reports, books, and accounts of the treasury department^ 
particularly the reports of 1869 to 1872, inclusive, to ascertain 
whether or not any actual differences or discrepancies exist, and also 
whether or not any alterations in the amounts or figures have been 
made, and report the facts to the Senate ; and that said committee 
shall have power to employ a stenographer as clerk, who shall be paid 
out of the contingent fund of the Senate, on vouchers approved by 
the committee." 



IMTEKCOMMUNICATION BY THE PRESS. 309 

Senator Davis spoke at length, and in closing said the facts and 
figures, all taken from the official reports, clearly establish — 

1. That differences, changes, and alterations involving millions of 
■dollars have been made in the annual finance reports, after being offi- 
cially reported to Congress. 

2. That ex-Secretary Bristow and the Finance Committee admit 
that they were made between the years 1869 and 1871, without ex- 
planations, and without authority ; and the reasons for making them 
■ought to be known. 

3. That the annual finance reports to Congress substantially agree 
up to and including the year 1868, and from 1871 to the present, 
as to the public debt, expenditures, and the receipts of the govern- 
ment, but between these years they differ widely. 

4. That in 1870 the register of the treasury was directed to re- 
state the public debt and expenditures from the 3'^ear 1835 to 1870, 
according to a statement sent him from the secretary's office, and 
not according to data or books in his office. 

5. That between the years 1869 and 1871, the secretary's new 
tables, remodelling the public debt and expenditures of the govern- 
ment, first appear in the finance report, which makes these changes 
and alterations, and increases the public debt and expenditures more 
than $100,000,000. 

This one fact alone speaks volumes in favor of the establishment 
of an official newspaper on the principle suggested by me. In this, 
as in every other instance of similar enterprises of public intercom- 
munication, it would soon appear that a government of the people, 
-working for the people, can work twice and three times as cheap as 
corporate bodies working only for themselves, and only with a view 
to increase dividends on ' ' watered ' ' stock. 



310 LIBERTY AND LAW. 



POLICE, PASSPOETS, AlW REGISTRATIOK. 



CHAP TEE I. 



THE NECESSITY OF A FEDEEAL POLICE. 

The object of the criminal laws of the State is to secure the cit- 
izens against fraud and violence, by providing for the arrest and 
punishment of offenders. The object of a police system is to pre- 
vent the fraud or violence from being committed, and also to aid in 
the arrest of all criminals. It is far more important to the welfare 
of citizens that an offender should be prevented from committing a 
crime than that he should suffer punishment after its commission. 
Hence the purely negative code must be aided by a positive one, 
establishing such regulations as may be necessary to render the com- 
mission of offences almost impossible.* Such a positive code is called 
police-law, — the law of prevention. 

Every well-regulated State is therefore bound to establish such a 
police-law, and organize a special department of police, passports, 
and registration to carry out its provisions. In proportion as this 
department is conducted so as to be most effective and least oppres- 
sive, will it best subserve the purposes of its creation. Its very 
objects require it to be exacting, and to demand from all citizens an 
observance and obedience to all regulations that are essential to carry 
out its purpose to prevent crime. For men cannot penetrate the 
motives of others, or foresee the designs of strangers coming into a 
neighborhood, unless they know the antecedents of such strangers, 
their residence, occupation, age, name, and purposes. For this reason 
the police must be empowered to ascertain these facts and verify 
them, and all persons should be required to submit to the necessary 
precautionary examination, whether they have any criminal intent or 
not. Such a thorough police-department is particularly necessary in 
our States. Free of access and open to all new-comers, as all our 



POLICE, PASSrORTS, AND REGISTRATION. oil 

counties and cities are, — no inquiry being anywhere raised as to the 
real name, character, or occupation of the new resident, — crime 
enjoj's here unusual advantages and immunities ; and not only are 
many crimes committed, but in most cases the criminals escape or go 
unpunished. On the other hand, the individual efforts that have 
been made to prevent and punish crime by the organization of private 
police corporations, styled "detective agencies," have but too gen- 
erally succeeded in defeating the purposes for which they were 
created. For, being under no control of the government, and owing- 
no reports to the law, their whole aim and object has been to make 
as much money as possible, — an aim and object utterly incompatible 
with the conception of a true police-system. This has worked great 
wrong in two waj^s : Firstly, it has led to the vicious habit of com- 
pounding felony with nearly every criminal whose position in life, 
adroitness, and extent of theft made this the most profitable arrange- 
ment ; the defaulter or robber of $300,000, for instance, retaining 
$100,000, and restoring $200,000 to the party robbed, who is rejoiced 
to get back two-thirds of his stolen property, even though he have to 
pay, say, $50,000 of it to the detective agency that so cleverly man- 
aged the business. Secondly, it has led to the extension of the odious, 
system of blackmailing, beyond any limit before thought possible. 
The detective agency, being purely a money-making establishment, 
naturally set all its sharp wits to work to discover new ways of mak- 
ing money and adding to the dividends of the detective corporation. 
It quickl}^ discovered a veiy remunerative way of this sort, in settino- 
its agents to pry into the private affairs of people ; and from the 
scandal thus collected, to select such information concerning shy and 
easily frightened people as might produce large rewards if the publi- 
cation of the scandal were withheld. 

It is quite true that the organization of a State police which sliall 
at once fulfil its functions effectively, and yet leave to the individual 
unimpaired freedom under the law, is one of the most delicate tasks 
intrusted to the law-giver, and that the inherent diflSculty of the task 
increases under a republican government. Nevertheless, we have 
been extremely unsuccessful in our establishment of a police system. 

Our Federal police is, in point of fact, merely a private detective 
agenc}^ for revenue and postal purposes, having all the odious fea- 
tures of secrecy and espionage about it without any protection to 
life or property, and lacking all the essential elements of proper 



312 LIBEKTY AND LAW. 

organization and supervision. It has thus become open to the most 
scandalous abuses; gangs of counterfeiters, mail- robbers, etc., noto- 
riously buying off detectives, to let them carry on, undenounced, 
their criminal occupations. 

The States themselves have no police system at all, and rely alto- 
gether upon private or municipal corporations to do that which is 
essentially the duty of the State. This deficiency leaves, of course, 
all the smaller cities, villages, and agricultural districts open to the 
unchecked violence and villainy of the thief, robber, and murderer ; 
for only large cities can afford police forces, and private police corpo- 
rations find it profitable to carry on their business only in large cities. 
Hence the terrible crimes in the country districts that so often startle 
the community, — the assassinations, the rapes, the railway train 
robberies, the horse-stealing, that surprise us where one would least 
expect them. Such horrible tragedies as the Benders perpetrated in 
Kansas — who came, unknown, settled down on a lonely tract of land, 
and built upon it a small log tavern, butchering almost every day 
some unsuspecting traveller that came in for rest or refreshment — 
.should not be possible at all in a well-organized State. No State can 
possibly protect its citizens in their lives, libert}^ and property that 
thus permits everybody to settle down anywhere without knowledge* 
of their real names, former residence, character, or occupation. The 
issue is simply this : whether we shall continue to expose our lives 
and property to constant danger, or submit to some slight incon- 
veniences, that are absolutely necessary to avert that danger. 

The police of municipal corporations, finally, — the only legal police 
we have, — has grown up in such an unsystematic, fragmentary sort of 
wa};- as to be in one respect singularly inefficient, and in another 
oppressively tyrannical. It has neither the powers it ought to have, 
nor is it debarred from exercising the powers it ought not to have. 
Policemen have shot dowai — brutally murdered — men simply for 
not obeying their call to halt ; while, on the other hand, they allow 
the most flagrant vice and crime to advertise their trade in the open 
streets. Horse-cars, omnibuses, and other vehicles run over and kill 
hundreds of people yearly in our large cities .; other hundreds break 
their limbs or necks in walking public streets that are wholly inse- 
cure ; and wild cattle, running loose or driven through the public 
thoroughfares of our cities, gore men, women, and children nearly 
every day ; the police all the while looking on unconcernedly, while 



POLICE, PASSPORTS, AND REGISTRATION. 313 

wasting time and attention by maldng raids on gambling-houses and 
dragging the lowest classes of loafers aiid harlots before a police 
magistrate for a periodical fine. 

To remedy this state of affairs it will be absolutely necessary to 
establish for every State a thorough police-force, under the direc- 
tion of a chief department specially created for that purpose. This 
organization should have its representatives in every township of the 
State, in every village, and in every block of a large city, all in con- 
stant rapport with each other. It should have abundant power to 
carry out its objects, and yet be sufficiently checked, not wantonly 
to interfere with men's lawful rights and liberties. 

From such a police organization all features of secrecy and mys- 
tery should be strictly excluded. No opei-ation of the State should 
need a mask or require concealment. The State has an absolute 
right to demand of each citizen his name, antecedents, occupation, 
character, and residence. It is an utter impossibility that the State 
should be able to meet its obligation to protect every citizen unless 
this risht is conceded. 



CHAPTER n. 



THE NECESSITY OE EEGISTRATTON AND PASSPORTS. 

It must, therefore, be made absolutely impossible that any person 
can arrive at and take up his quarters in any township or village, or 
in any part of a city, unless the police are immediatelj' advised of 
the fact of his arrival, his name, residence, occupation, and proposed 
destination. If it is found necessary that a system of passports is 
indispensable to secure this object, such a system should be at once 
introduced. The notion of passports may seem very objectionable 
to us nowadays ; but really, when calmly considered, the passport 
system does not infringe on our individual hberty of intercommuni- 
cation to any serious extent, while it certainl)^ affords it fuller pro- 
tection than could be realized by any other measure. 

Surely every citizen of a State desires freedom to go to any part 
of that State, and be protected on the way against violence and fraud. 



314 LIBERTr AND LAW. 

But how can the State protect him when its pohce are unacquainted 
with the names, occupations, and destinations of all other citizens 
with whom he may come in contact? Hence he himself and all 
others must be made subject to some measure that shall effectually 
make it possible for the State to obtain that knowledge whenever 
needed, and no measure is so adequate for this purpose as the pass- 
port. 

If the name "passport" is held objectionable, some othername can 
easily be invented, and the instrument itself can be rearranged, with 
the application of modern science, so as to take away from it all the 
features that formerly made it odious. A small printed card, with 
the photograph on one side, and the name, occupation, age, and 
residence of the owner, leaving the necessary blanks to be filled, on 
the other side, and the seal of office affixed, with the date of issue, 
would serve all purposes, and could easily be secured against coun- 
terfeiting. 

Such a passport system can, moreover, be very readily combined 
with the existing registration system for voters, making the latter far 
more adequate to subserve its purposes. It is a notorious fact, that 
under the present system of registration fraudulent votes are cast at 
every election. People vote who have no right to vote ; others vote 
two, three, or more times at the same election; and the police are 
powerless to prevent the outrage. Nobody knows all the men who 
offer their votes, — neither their name, their occupation, nor their 
residence. 

Under such a system as I propose, it would be impossible for the 
murderers, house-burners, forgers, and other criminals that prey upon 
society to carry on their nefarious trades unperceived. Nor would 
such a system of passports and registration allow the sudden vanish- 
ing of men from our midst, no one knowing when, where, or how they 
vanish. What unknown, dreadful crimes may envelop the man}^ 
inexplicable sudden disappearances of well-known persons from the 
midst of their friends ! A few years ago a woman was found dead 
in her house in New York, jive weeks having elapsed since her death 
or murder, and her body too decomposed to show whether murder 
had been committed or not. And this is by no means an isolated 
occurrence. Nearly every week we read of mj'sterious disappear- 
ances of rich or influential persons, — abductions of women, of chil- 



POLICE, PASSPORTS, AND REGISTRATION. 315 

dren, — and it rarely happens that those mysteries are solved. Ought 
such occurrences to be possible under proper police administra- 
tion? 

What carelessness, again, is more culpable than that which permits 
our boats and ships to leave their hai-bors without rendering a full list 
of their passengers ? How many families linger in agon}'^ when the 
news of a shipwreck is borne to them, and no list of the ship's pas- 
sengers can be obtained anywhei'e. How many persons plunge annu- 
ally from our steamboats into the waters of our rivers and lakes, no 
one knowing their name or residence ! How many unknown indi- 
viduals are killed annually on our railroads, no railroad company 
keeping a list of its passengers, their names, residences, or destina- 
tions ! 

A well-considered system of passports and registration would 
speedily put an end to this state of things, and amply repay, by the 
benefits conferred in personal security of ourselves, our friends, and 
relatives, for the first slight annoyances it might give occasion to ; 
and it would have the additional advantage of protecting every holder 
of such a passport against the unjustifiable annoyance to which men 
are subject from the police under the present loose system. The vio- 
lation of the rights of pei'sonal liberty and security in one's own house 
against police entrance and search would no longer be possible ; and 
to the additional security conferred would thus be added far greater 
protection against unjustifiable, illegal, and despotic acts of the pres- 
ent irresponsible police administrations in the cities. 



CHAPTEK III. 



THE SUPEEIORITY OF A NATIONAL POLICE OVEE A NATIONAL 

ARMY. 

There is one other consideration which ought to plead strongly for 
the establishment of such a thorough police-system as I have herein 
set forth. We maintain at present, at a large expense, a Federal 
army of some twenty-five thousand men. The following are the 
exact fioures : — 



316 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

The army of the United States, on the loth of October, 1879, con- 
sisted of the following forces, in officers and men : — 



Ten cavalry regimeuts 

Five artillery regiments 

Twenty-flve. infantry regiments 

Engineer battalion, recruiting parties, ordnance dep^-.tment, hospital 
service, Indian scouts, West Point, and general service 



430 

278 
851 



7,206 
2,387 
10,973 

3,696 



Total . 



2,127 



24,262 



The amount expended on the army for the year 1879 was |40,- 
425,660. Now, for all the purposes of an ai'my this body of men is 
virtually useless ; and, while it is so useless, it is surrounded, so far 
as the privates are concerned, by an atmosphere of degradation, 
which still further increases its inefficiency. It is a notorious fact, 
that to enter the United States army as a private is considered equiva- 
lent to relinquishing all claim to social respectability. Hence, while 
the police authorities of our large cities can command the services of 
the best class of men available for their purposes, the United States 
army must be content with the poorest material. On the other 
hand, though it may seem paradoxical, there is a strong feeling 
amongst the American people of jealousy toward the United States 
army, — a feeling which also tends much towards increasing its ineffi- 
ciency. 

Now, it seems to me, that if we were to convert our arm}?- into a 
civil police-force, we should remove that jealousy and at the same 
time ennoble the service. We might thus secure a first-class Federal 
police, and remove that anomaly from our service, a military body 
of men not subject to the civil law. 

There are three duties on which our present army is detailed : First, 
to protect our Western settlements against the Indians ; second, to 
watch our Southern frontier against Mexican raids ; and, third, to do 
garrison duty in various places, where they may be readily called 
upon to suppress local disturbances, as in the case of the recent 
strikes. For all three purposes a police force would, I think, be 
more efficient than our present army force has shown itself to be, 
and certainly far cheaper, for it could not possibly swallow up $40,- 
000,000. 

So far as the Indian problem is concerned, it is notorious, that 



POLICE, PASSPORTS, AND REGISTRATION. 317 

the army has singulrorly failed to achieve satisfactoiy results. Our 
deaUngs with the Indians, mainh^ conducted . through the army, 
have been as disgraceful to us as our armed conflicts with them 
have been disastrous to our soldiers. The blood of those soldiers 
has been shed in vain on the lava-beds ; their bodies lie buried 
unavenged under the green prairie sod; and, worst of all, the 
great majorit}' of the American people, however full of pity for 
the fallen brave of their own race, feel in their conscience bound 
to acquit the Indians of unprovoked aggression in these' slaughters. 
The Indians have been so maltreated, notoriously so badly dealt 
with, that we cannot withhold from them a certain sympathy. Now^ 
across the Canadian border, under British rule, where a police force 
regulates Indian affairs, the^'^ have escaped all such unfortunate col- 
lisions, to the great satisfaction of both Indians and whites. But if 
our neighbors, the Canadians, find a police system sufficient and sat- 
isfactory in their dealings with the Indians, why should we not be 
able to do the same? So far as the Mexican border is concerned, I 
see also no objection to the employment of a police instead of an 
army force. The police would, of course, receive a military train- 
ing, but its character as a civil organization, under the control of 
experienced police-officers, would give it many advantages besides, 
those already mentioned, in dealing with the desperadoes of the 
border, and remove all the dangers of an undesirable war, which is so 
apt to be the result of a collision between the armed troops of two 
neighboring nations. In saying this, I do not argue against the pro- 
priety of a war against Mexico, which might put an end to its condi- 
tion of chronic anarchy ; but such a war should be the result of mature 
deliberation. Indeed, those disturbances on the Mexican border are 
so clearly in the nature of thieving and plundering exploits, that they 
would be very properly consigned to a police force. The bands that 
organize them are simply robbers, and should not be treated as the con- 
stituents of an army. By treating them simply as criminals, we should 
avoid at the same time possible military and political complications, 
and afford to our settlers on this side of the border a better protec- 
tion against robbery and pillage than they now receive from our army. 
Finally, for the suppression of disturbances in the interior, of 
mob rule and insurrection, there is positively no other remedy than 
an efficient police, aided by a thorough passport and registration 
system. The terrible occurrences of the "strikes year," the out- 



318 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

rages committed in. the Pennsylvania mining-districts, as well as the 
bandit organizations that have of late sprung up in various parts of 
our country, and with unparallelled boldness and success have plun- 
dered bank vaults, railway trains, and terrorized various sections of 
our country, — all these phenomena of a community suffering still 
from the demoralization attendant upon a civil war, and the universal 
financial distress which has afflicted us ever since 1873, make the 
establishment of such municipal, State, and National police bodies as 
I have herein suggested an absolute necessity of the times. 

That this problem of securing complete protection against internal 
disturbances cannot be attained by our army over so vast an extent 
of country as that of the United States has been abundantly shown, 
ever since those disturbances have become one of the features of our 
times. Nor are armed troops likely to be ever effective in securing 
the purity of elections, owing to the jealousy of the American people, 
which is ever aroused by military interference at the polls. In fact, 
the same jealousy is manifested by the people of Great Britain when- 
ever the soldiers are called out by the government to suppress a riot, 
or even to keep order at a strike ; and even in soldier-ridden Germany, 
as well as in France, this feeling towards the standing army is happily 
beginning to take root. 

There is no alternative, therefore, if peace is to be preserved. We 
must have an organized police-force, municipal, State, and National, 
obedient under civil legislation, but always ready, not only to cause 
crime to be punished, but also to detect plans for the commission of 
crime, and to prevent their execution. Such a police might be 
efficiently supported by a number of picked men in every county in 
the country, and every ward of a city, upon whom the regular police- 
force could call in emergencies for assistance. This would lend 
additional authority to the police, and take away from them those 
obnoxious features that must accompany every police-system. 

In the chapter on Schools, it will have been seen that I have further 
provided for the efficiency of such a pohce registration by the estab- 
lishment of military schools, which would provide an efficient army 
at a moment's notice, in case it should ever be necessary to create 
one. The naval department would, of course, have to continue, 
though the abolition of the tariff would make cruising for smugglers 
unnecessary. But our present military organization might very well be 
dispensed with, if the propositions herein advanced are duly carried out. 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 319 



CAPITAL. AWD LABOE; OR, THE RICH 
ANT> THE POOR. 



CHAPTER I. 

ANALYSIS OF THE CONFLICT. 

I place these words at the head of this chapter, not because they 
fitly express the idea which underlies them, but because they have 
been sanctioned by usage to illustrate the most perplexing social 
question that has agitated mankind since its primitive historical exist- 
ence. 

Capital and labor, as such, are not two opposite ideas, expressive 
of two antagonistic factors of human life ; for labor is also capital, in 
that it has the power to accomplish the same ends. Capital purchases 
commodities, and labor purchases commodities. Capital procures 
labor, and labor procures capital; and therewith, perchance, new 
labor. In so far, therefore, both of these elements of life are inter- 
changeable, and their common exponent is money, as the universal 
purchasing-agency. When we say of a man, that he has capital, we 
really mean, that he has wealth, — be it in the nature of money, or of 
houses, farms, cattle, bonds, or any other means whereby he can 
purchase whatever commodities he desires to possess, to the extent of 
that wealth. But labor accomplishes the same end, and is just as 
much and in the same meaning a purchasing-agency, or medium of 
commercial and business interchange. Nor can it be said that cap- 
ital and labor are opposites in this : that the one agency can accom- 
plish more than the other. At least, this does not hold good as a 
general proposition. 

It is true, that some kinds of labor command only a very small 
amount of purchasing-power ; let us say, for instance, in order to 
fix a measure, only to the extent of $300 per annum. But there is 
also many a kind of capital that can do no more. Other kinds of 



320 LIBFJRTY AND LAW. 

labor may be able to purchase $10,000 or $50,000 per annum, in the 
same way as other kinds of capital can so purchase. 

The distinction made in this respect between capital and labor is 
therefore a purely fictitious one, and not at all of a qualitative kind ; 
nor is it either, generally speaking, of a quantitative character. The 
words simply do not at all express what they were meant to express ; 
and are chosen by me, as I said before, only because they are of 
common usage as representing an altogether different idea. What 
people really do mean when they speak of a conflict between capital 
and labor is, a conflict between the rich and the poor. 

But who, then, are the rich and the poor? Wlience comes this 
pecuUar distinction between men, — a distinction neither physical, 
mental, nor moral, but entirely unique ; and what gives rise to that 
conflict, — a conflict which, from the very nature of the case, invari- 
ably begins on the part of the poor? 

This, indeed, is apparent from the simple fact that the terms 
"capital" and "labor," as signifying such opposition, are of purely 
modern use; whilst the conflict which they typify — between rich 
and poor — is as old as the historical world. 

Those terms, " Capital" and "Labor," are indeed mere arbitrary 
generalizations, invented to hide the reality, — humbugs to delude 
the masses. Let it, then, be clearlj' understood that the expression, 
" Conflict between Capital and Labor," when thus used, means simply 
the world-historical struggle between the Rich and the Poor ; the 
solution of which through a peaceful reconciliation is imperatively 
demanded by the social condition of the modern world, and consti- 
tutes what is nowadays called the " social question." 



CHAPTEE 11. 



HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF THE CONFLICT. 

In modern times this question was inaugurated by Rousseau ; car- 
ried into practice by the men of the French Revolution ; in a common- 
sense way it was expounded by Adam Smith ; and philosophically, 
finally, it was elaborated by Kant and Fichte. 

The present expounders of this question are almost all of European 



CAPITAL AAD LABOR. 321 

origin and residence ; and their head-centre, Mr. Marx, is a Germaa 
Jew, residing at London. It is not unworthy of remark, by the by, 
that all the prominent Jewish politicians — Lasker in German}^ Gam- 
betta in France, and Castelar in Spain, amongst others — are strong- 
advocates of Socialism, though not exactly of Communism. 

Nor is it proper to call this " conflict between capital and labor '* 
one of the workingmen against their employers, as has been of late 
the habit to characterize it. This, also, is a perversion of facts, put 
forward solely to mislead the people. There does not exist, and there 
never has existed amongst men a distinctive class of workingmen. 
Properly speaking, all men are, more or less, workingmen, however 
the nature of their work may differ. But even if we confine the terms 
" workingmen " and " laborers " to those who earn their living exclu- 
sivel}' by manual labor, we shall find that the men who have made, 
and still make themselves most conspicuous in defining the social 
conflict of the present time as one between workingmen and their 
employers, invariably narrow it down to the workingmen of cities, 
and jealously exclude from their ranks the workingmen of our broad 
prairies and extensive forests. 

The origin and nature of this jealousy on the part of the work- 
ingmen of the cities against the agricultural laborers I shall now 
explain. 

In his celebrated work, " The History of the Working and Burgher 
Classes," M. De Cassagnac says that, "taking histor}^ at all its 
sources, we have found numerous, deep, conspicuous, and unexcep- 
tionable traces of two classes of men, who have universally, in all 
countries, abounded in the commencement of all societies. One of 
these classes were masters, the other slaves, — the first oivn, the second 
are oivned."^ 

But M. De Cassagnac. like most of his countrymen, when treating 
of the philosophical order of things in history, prefers generalization 
to the narration of actual facts. 

Historically, it appears rather that, primitively, men lived in a state 
of perfect equality, as nomads. This mode of life is still extant 
amongst our Indians, the Esquimaux, and several other uncivilized 
tribes. From this nomadic life, or along with it, came the pastoral ; 
and then arose the life of agriculture, a mode of life wherein there was 



' Duff Green's translation. 

21 



322 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

also perfect equality, and wherein there never entered such a state of 
things as hostility between employers and laborers. This was the 
patriarchal period of history, and is also still extant; ss, for instance, 
in our unorganized Territories, and indeed wherever civilized men 
live together without having yet established a common government. 
Each individual, with the consent of his tribe, chose for himself a 
tract of land, either for the purpose of tilling it and raising grain 
thereon, or with a view to raising large herds of cattle. This 
state of society gave preeminence to the institution of the family, 
which, in nomadic life, had always remained more or less un- 
settled. The cultivator of the soil was naturally interested in 
raising a large family of sons and daughters, upon whose volun- 
tary assistance he could rely permanently, or at least until such 
time as they should themselves become the heads of families. When 
this occurred, their past voluntary service was rewarded by a proper 
dower or advancement. Here then, also, there could be no conflict 
between capital and labor, or employer and employee, except in the 
rare cases where children might express dissatisfaction with their 
share of the paternal allotment. This, however, partook always 
more of the nature of a family feud, and was a feeling entirely dif- 
ferent from that which causes the social agitation of modern times. 

But alongside of the soil-tillers we find gradually growing up another 
class of men, gathering together and erecting dwellings in close vicin- 
ity to each other, and building walls around these dweSings for com- 
mon protection, — the builders of cities^ of whom we find separate 
mention made in every ancient historical account. It is to be noted, 
that, together with these city-builders, we find also mention made of 
the malleability of iron and other metals ; in other words, the growth 
of cities and the development of the mechanical arts went hand-in- 
hand, and from this growth and this development first arose the dis- 
tinction between employer and workingman, using the latter term in 
the meaning attributed to it by modern agitators, — that is, a me- 
chanic, as distinguished from an agricultural laborer. 

Another step : The nomads did not find it necessary to establish 
an interchange of commodities, since they found ready at hand all 
the necessaries of their lives in the game and the wild fruits of the 
fields. The patriarchs provided all their wants from their flocks and 
herds and the lands which they cultivated. But matters stood differ- 
ently with the mechanics of the cities : the blacksmith's iron furnished 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 323 

him neither food nor raiment ; wood might enable the carpenter to 
build his house and make his furniture, but could help him no further ; 
and brickmakers were, in this respect, as helpless as blacksmiths and 
carpenters. A mechanic, of whatever profession, was thus depend- 
ent upon the soil-tiller for his food and clothing ; and as the soil-tillers 
soon learned the advantages to be derived from the labor of the 
mechanics, there sprung up between these two classes of laborers an 
interchange of commodities, which, in its first rude stage, was a 
direct interchange of articles, — a plow, for instance, in exchange for 
so many measures of corn, — but which gradually became an indirect 
exchange by means of money, the invention of the men who undei'- 
took the control of this indirect exchange, — middle-men, or mer- 
chants and brokers, — and which gradually became the instrument of 
the most degrading slavery amongst men, by making that anomalous 
distinction between rich and poor, alluded to before, possible. 

It is curious to note the singularity of this money-distinction, or 
money-slavery, between men. Their political inequality — that be- 
tween master and slave, king and subject, voter and non-voter — is 
easily enough accounted for, originating as it does in brute force ; 
and it is also easily enough done away vnth by the same agency, — 
brute force, or revolution. Their mental or intellectual inequality 
is also easily removed by universal public education ; but no human 
mind has as yet contrived means to deliver mankind from the unre- 
lenting tyranny of the money-power ; or, in other words, radicallj^ to 
solve the irrepressible conflict between the rich and the poor (capital 
and labor). 



CHAP TEE m. 

ATTEMPTED PRACTICAL SOLUTION OF THE CONFLICT — THE SO- 
CIALISTIC GOVERNMENT OF ANCIENT PERU AND THE JESUIT 
GOVERNMENT OF PARAGUAY. 

A practical solution was, however, at one time of human history, 
not only attempted, but carried out for nearly seven centuries, with 
the most admirable results. I allude to the government of ancient 
Peru, under the rule of the Incas, whereby a civilization was estab- 
lished, the beneficial humanitarian results of which have excited the 



324 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

admiration of all subseqLuent ages, and which might have lasted tO' 
this day had not the cruel, barbarous civilization of the Spanish con- 
questadores put a violent end to it. 

I hope my readers will not consider it amiss if I here go out of my 
way to mention some salient points of that unique form of govern- 
ment, using the language of one of our greatest historians, Prescott,. 
its impartial chronicler : — 

" The whole territory of the empire was divided into three parts, — 
one for the Sun, for religious worship, another for the Inca, and the 
last for the people. Which of the three was the largest is doubtfuL 
The proportions differed materially in different provinces. The dis- 
tribution, indeed, was made on the same general principle, as each 
new conquest was added to the monarchy ; but the proportion varied 
according to the amount of population, and the greater or less- 
amount of land consequently required for the support of the inhab- 
itants. 

"The lands assigned to the Sun (religious worship) furnished a 
revenue to support the temples and maintain the costly ceremonial 
of the Peruvian worship and the multitudinous priesthood. 

" Those reserved for the Inca went to support the royal state, as 
well as the numerous members of his- household and his kindred, and 
supplied the various exigencies of government. The remainder of 
the land was divided, per capita, in equal shares among the people. 
It was provided by law, as we shall see hereafter, that everj' Peru- 
vian should marry at a certain age. When this event took place, the 
community or district in which he lived furnished him with a dwell- 
ing, which, as it was constructed of humble materials, was done at 
little cost. A lot of land was then assigned to him sufficient for his 
own maintenance and that of his wife. An additional portion was- 
granted for every child, the amount allowed for a son being the 
double of that for a daughter. The division of the soil was renewed 
every year, and the possessions of the tenant were increased or 
diminished according to the numbers in his famil3\ The same ar- 
rangement was observed with reference to the curacas (officials), 
except only that a domain was assigned to them corresponding with 
the superior dignity of their stations." * * * 

To keep alive the love of a homestead under such a system, it 
was further provided, as Prescott says, that " not only should the 
lease, if we may so call it, terminate with the year, but 'during that 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 325 

period the tenant had no power to aUenate or to add to his pos- 
sessions. The end of the brief term found him in precisel3^ the 
same condition that he was in at the beginning. Such a state of 
things might be supposed to be fatal to anything like attacliment 
to the soil, or to that desire of improving it which is natural to 
the permanent proprietor, and hardly less so to the holder of a long 
lease. But the practical operation of the law seems to have been 
otherwise ; and it is probable that, under the influence of that love 
of order and aversion to change which marked the Peruvian institu- 
tion, each new partition of the soil usually confirmed the occupant in 
his possession, and the tenant for a year was converted into a pro- 
prietor for life." 

The mode of cultivating the soil under this system Prescott de- 
scribes as follows : — 

"The territory was cultivated wholly by the people. The lands 
belonging to the Sun were first attended to. They next tilled the 
lands of the old, of the sick, of the widow and the orphan, and 
of soldiers engaged in actual service ; in short, of all that part of 
the communitj^ who, from bodily infirmity or an}^ other cause, were 
unable to attend to his own concerns. The people were then allowed 
to work on their own ground, each man for himself, but with the gen- 
eral obligation to assist his neighbor when any circumstance — the 
burden of a young and numerous family, for example — might de- 
mand it. Lastly, they cultivated the lands of the Inca. This was 
done with great ceremony, by the whole population in a body. At 
break of day, they were summoned together by proclamation from 
some neighboring tower or eminence, and all the inhabitants of the 
district — ■ men, women, and children — appeared dressed in their gay- 
est apparel, bedecked with their little store of finery and ornaments, 
as if for some great jubilee. They went through the labors of the 
day with the same joj^ous spirit, chanting their popular ballads, which 
•commemorated the heroic deeds of the Incas, regulating their move- 
ments by the measure of the chant, and all mingling in the chorus, of 
which the word haillii, or 'triumph,' was usually the burden." 

The material for their clothing, which was furnished by the large 
herds of llamas, was thus obtained and distributed amongst the 
people : — 

"At the appointed season they were all sheared, and the wool was 
deposited in the public magazines. It was then dealt out to each 



326 LIBEKTY AND LAW. 

family in such quantities as sufficed foi* its wants, and was consigned 
to the female part of the household, who were well instructed in the 
business of spinning and weaving. When this labor was accom- 
plished, and the family was provided with a coarse but warm cover- 
ing, suited to the cold climate of the mountains, — for in the lower 
country, cotton furnished in like manner by the crown took the 
place, to a certain extent, of wool, — the people were required to labor 
for the Inca. The quantity of the cloth needed, as well as the pecu- 
liar kind and qualit}^ of the fabric, was first determined at Cuzco. 
The work was then apportioned among the different provinces. Offi- 
cers, appointed for the purpose, superintended the distribution of the 
wool, so that the manufacture of the different articles should be 
intrusted to the most competent hands. They did not leave the 
matter here, but entered the dwellings from time to time and saw 
that the work was faithfully executed. This domestic inquisition 
was not confined to the labors for the Inca. It included also those 
for the several families ; and care was taken that each household 
should employ the materials furnished for its own use in the manner 
that was intended, so that no one should be unprovided with neces- 
sary apparel. In this domestic labor all the female part of the estab- 
lishment was expected to join. Occupation was found for all, from 
the child five years old to the aged matron not too infirm to hold a 
distaff. No one — -at least, none but the decrepit and the sick — 
was allowed to eat the bread of idleness in Peru. Idleness was a 
crime in the eye of the law, and as such severely punished ; while 
industry was publicly commended and stimulated by rewards." 

In regard to that class of people who attended to the mechanical 
arts, Preseott informs us : — 

"All the mines in the kingdom belonged to the Inca; they were 
wrought exclusively for his benefit, by persons familiar with this ser- 
vice, and selected from the districts where the mines were situated. 
Every Peruvian of the lower class was a husbandman, and, with the 
exception of those already specified, was expected to provide for his 
own support by the cultivation of his land. A small portion of the 
community, however, was instructed in mechanical arts, some of 
them of the more elegant kind, subservient to the purposes of luxury 
and ornaments. The demand for these was chiefly limited to the 
sovereio-n and his court ; but the labor of a larger number of hands 
was exacted for the execution of the great public works which covered 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 327 

the land. The nature and amount of the services required were all de- 
termined at Cuzco, by commissioners well instructed in the resources 
of the country and in the character of the inhabitants of the different 
provinces." * * » 

Thus we see that "the different provinces of the country furnished 
persons peculiarly suited to different employments, which, as we shall 
see hereafter, usually descended from father to son. Thus, one dis- 
trict supplied those most skilled in working the mines, another the most 
curious workers in metals or in wood, and so on. The artisan was 
provided 133' the government with the materials, and no one was re- 
quired to give more than a stipulated portion of his time to the public. 
He was then succeeded by another for the like term ; and it should 
be observed that all who were engaged in the employment of the gov- 
ernment — and the remark applies equally to agricultural labor — 
were maintained for the time at the public expense. By this constant 
rotation of labor, it was intended that no one should be overbur- 
dened, and that each man should have time to provide for the de- 
mands of his own household. It was impossible, in the judgment 
of a high Spanish authority, to improve on the system of distribu- 
tion, so carefull}' was it accommodated to the condition and comfort 
of the artisan. The security of the working classes seems to have 
been ever kept in view in the regulation of the government, and these 
were so discreetl}^ arranged that the most wearing and unwholesome 
labors — as those of tlie mines — occasioned no detriment to the 
health of the laborer ; a striking contrast to his subsequent conditioa 
nnder the Spanish rule." 

The noble system of "cornering" on wheat, meat, corn, gold, 
silver, opium, or quinine, so thoroughly cultivated under our modern 
money-system, was entirely unknown in ancient Peru. The way the 
Incas managed was thus : — 

"A part of the agricultural produce and manufactures were trans- 
ported to Cuzco, to minister to the immediate demands of the Inca 
and his court. But far the greater part was stored in magazines 
scattered over the different provinces. These spacious buildings, 
Constructed of stone, were divided between the Sun and the Inca, 
though the greater share seems to have been appropriated by the 
monarch. By a wise regulation, any deficiency in the contributions 
of the Inca might be supplied from the granaries of the Sun. But 
such a necessity could rarely have happened ; and the providence of 



328 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the government usually left a large surplus in the royal depositories, 
which was removed to a tliird class of magazines, whose design was 
to supply the people in seasons of scarcity, and, occasionally, to fur- 
nish relief to individuals whom sickness or misfortune had reduced to 
poverty ; thus, in a manner, justifying the assertion of a Castilian 
document, that a large portion of the revenues of the Inca found its 
way back again, through one channel or another, into the hands of 
the people. These magazines were found by the Spaniards, on their 
arrival, stored with all the various products and manufactures of the 
countr}^ — with maize, cocoa, quiniia, woollen and cotton stuffs of the 
finest quality, with vases and utensils of gold, silver, and copper; in 
short, with ever}^ article of luxury or use within the compass of Peru- 
vian skill. The magazines of grain, in particular, would frequently 
have sufficed for the consumption of Che adjoining district for several 
years. An inventory of the various products of the countrj^, and the 
quarters whence they were obtained, was every year taken by the 
royal officers and recorded by the quipitcamayus on their registers 
with surprising regularity and precision. These registers were trans- 
mitted to the capital and submitted to the Inca, vvho could thus at a 
glance, as it were, embrace the whole results of the national industrj^, 
and see how far they corresponded with the requisitions of govern- 
ment." 

And how was it possible to establish and maintain such an admlra 
ble system of sociahstic government? Simply because the Peruvians, 
the inhabitants of the richest gold and silver lands of the world, used 
no money at all in their intercourse with each other, but employed 
those metals only for ornament. Thus the distinction between rich 
and poor, which I have traced as originating in the invention of 
mone}^, was utterly unknown to them. This led to the most bene- 
ficial results for the people at large. Says Prescott: — 

"If no man could become rich in Peru, no man could become 
poor. No spendthrift could waste his substance in riotous luxur}^ 
No adventurous schemer could impoverish his family by the spirit of 
speculation. The law was constantly directed to enforce a steady 
industry, and a sober management of his affairs. No mendicant was 
tolerated in Peru. When a man was reduced by poverty or misfor- 
tune, — it could hardly be by fault, — the arm of the law was stretched 
out to minister relief ; not the stinted relief of private charity, nor 
that which is doled out, drop by drop, as it were, from the frozen 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 329 

. reservoirs of 'the parish,' but in generous measure, bringing no 
humiUation to the object of it, and placing him on a level with the 
rest of his countrj'men. 

"No man could be rich, no man could be poor in Peru, but all 
might enjoy, and did enjoy a competence. Ambition, avarice, the 
love of change, the morbid spirit of discontent, — those passions which 
most agitate the minds of men, — found no place in the bosom of the 
Peruvian." 

I have said that the Inca government of ancient Peru was the only 
historical instance of a socialistic government known to us. Perhaps, 
however, I might have added another, which, however great the dif- 
ference, had still the same prominent socialistic features, and was 
accompanied b}- the same beneficent results. This is the government 
which the Jesuits established and maintained for nearly a century in 
Paraguay, and which seems almost to have been modelled after that 
of ancient Peru. It is South America, therefore, which, curiOuslj- 
enough, has furnished us with the two great experiments of Socialism 
known to history. 

It was about the beginning of the last century that the order of the 
Society of Jesus obtained possession of that fertile and salubrious 
district, having some eighty-four thousand square miles in extent, 
lying inland, between the rivers Parana and Paraguaj^, south of 
Brazil. They found the inhabitants in a state little different from 
tliat which takes place among men when they first unite together, — 
subsisting precariously by hunting and fishing, unacquainted with 
agriculture and manufactures, and strangers to the first principles of 
subordination and government. They were, however, of the same 
mild and gentle disposition which was so distinguished a character- 
istic of the ancient Peruvians. 

The Jesuits at once devoted themselves to instruct and to civilize 
them, teaching them to cultivate the ground, to rear tame animals, 
and to. build houses. They introduced the culture of grain, rice, 
cotton, tobacco, and the so-called Paraguay tea {yerba mate), and 
laid the foundation of those immense herds of cattle, which still con- 
tinue to be the main wealth of that little South American repubhc ; 
they brought them together in villages, and trained them to arts and 
manufactures ; they made them taste the sweets of society, and 
accustomed them to the blessings of security and order ; they gov- 
erned them with a tender attention, more resembling that which a 



330 LIBERTY AND LAAV. 

father directs to his children than the relation which usually exists 
between the governors and the governed ; the_y maintained a perfect 
equality among all the members of the communit}'', nearly a million 
in number, each of wJiom ivas obliged to labor, not for himself alone, 
but for the public. The produce of their fields, together with the 
fruits of their industry of every species, were deposited in common 
store-houses, from which each individual received ever3^thing neces- 
sary for the supply of his wants. Poverty, crime, envy, and dissat- 
isfaction, which render men unhappy under all other governments, 
were thus almost unknown in Paraguay; and a few magistrates, 
chosen from among their countrymen by the Indians themselves, 
sufficed to maintain public tranquility and secure obedience to the 
laws. Sanguinary punishments were absolutely unknown. An ad- 
monition from one of the Jesuits, a slight mark of repi-oach, or, in 
extreme eases, a few lashes from a whip, were sufficient to maintain 
good order. In order to prevent the Spaniards and Portuguese of 
the adjacent settlements from acquiring any dangerous influence over 
these Indians, the Jesuits cut off all intercourse between their sub- 
jects and the adjoining settlements, allowing no private trader to 
enter their territories ; and in order to render Paraguay secure 
ao-ainst attack, they formed their subjects into bodies of cavalry and 
infantry, completely armed and i-egularly disciplined, and provided a 
great train of artillery, as well as magazines of all the implements of 
war. 

The singular resemblance between these institutions of the Jesuits 
in Paraguay and those of primitive Peru are apparent at a glance. 
Nor is the resemblance between the elements which laid the founda- 
tion of these institutions, and those elements which made their 
application possible, less striking. Like the Incas, the Jesuits were 
few in number ; wise, benevolent, energetic ; with only one grand 
passion, — love of rule. Every Jesuit aspires to be, if not sole ruler 
of the world, at least one of the few, who have made the rule of the 
world his sole aim and object. The Paraguay Indians, on the other 
hand, like their countrymen of Peru, loved the mild, unoppressive 
despotism of a fatherly government. Absolute submission was to 
these childlike creatures advancement, happiness, virtue. 

It would have been of inestimable benefit not only for Paraguay, 
but for all South America, and in a great measure for all mankind, 
if this great experiment to raise up in the depths of South America 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 331 

and amongst a race of savages a model civilization, society, and 
government, had received no check. But Clement XIV., giving way 
to the pressure of France, Spain, and Portugal, — who had begun 
to fear the growing power of the Society of Jesus, — abrogated the 
order in 1773, and with its abrogation, and an exchange of some 
of the South American possessions between Spain and Portugal, 
the Jesuit government in Paraguay came to an end. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE RUSSIAN MIR SOCIALISTIC INSTITUTION AND THE LAND 
TENURES IN EUROPE. 

Another attempted practical solution of this problem, but which 
relates only to landholders and land-laborers, is that of the Russian 
mir (commune). A short sketch of it may also opportunely come 
in here. The mir constitutes a sort of democratic government. 
The "assembly," which is composed of the heads of families, makes 
all the laws, directs all during the harvest, manages the labor, pun- 
ishes those who do not pay their taxes, etc. It elects the elder, 
who acts as ma^^or ; also the collector, the watchman of the night, the 
burgher of the village. At certain periods the central administration 
reviews all the male peasants of the commune, from the latest-born 
to the centenarian, and each commune pa3^s to the government an 
annual sum proportionate to this enumeration. All families are col- 
lectivel}'" and individually responsible for the payment of this sum. 
It is important, therefore, that every one should v/ork, as idleness 
does not prevent the pa3^ment of individual taxes, and they must be 
borne by others. The system of corporal punishment still remains 
in use against those who do not pay their dues. 

The commune distributes land betvt'een its members as it judges 
proper, according to the resources of the applicants, or, rather, their 
ability to work ; besides which, every famih^ owns a house and garden, 
which is its hereditary property, and is never disturbed by the other 
periodical redistributions. Many peasants go to work in cities, and 
remain there a large portion of the 3''ear, and some permanently ; 
but this does not prevent their title to their rural homes, or exempt 
them from the tax. The women and children remain in the villages. 



332 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

When work fails, or old age or sickness arrives, the Russian peasant 
retires to his country home, and the law preserves his cabin, his agri- 
cultural tools, his house and household furniture, when he becomes 
helpless or insolvent. 

The emancipation of the serfs naturally put ah end to this system 
of the m«', but at the same time established a distribution of land, 
the like of which had not been witnessed since the days of the French 
Revolution. A sketch of this change will complete a description of 
the great practical solutions of the conflict between capital and labor 
attempted on this globe, and at the same time show how very little 
difficulty there really is in effecting a distribution of lands, held in 
vast tracts by a few owners, amongst the tenants, the real cultivators 
of the soil. I quote from an eminent writer on the subject: — 

"The proprietors, or nobles, who had derived from their serfs an 
annual revenue, either in labor, money, or farm produce, — as well 
from the direct cultivation of the land as in commutation of service 
from those serfs who were permitted to work on their own account at 
home, or reside as mechanics, traders, etc., at a distance, — were 
called upon in 1861 to accept a new condition of affairs. Hitherto 
the}' had paid a poll-tax to the government on the number of ' souls ' 
they counted on their estates, and although by law the serf was per- 
mitted to work three days of each week on his own account, the ma- 
jority of the proprietors followed their own interests in regulating the 
service due. The new law" compelled the proprietor to cede abso- 
lutel}'' to the peasants a portion of his estate, to give up to them the 
houses and gardens, and a large portion of the arable land ; in other 
words,, to convert the former serfs into members of free communes. 
The taxes were shifted, and the proprietor received his compensation 
in this wise : The land was valued, the dues were capitalized at six per 
cent, and the government paid at once to the proprietors four-fifths 
of the whole sum in government bonds. The peasants were to pay 
to the proprietor the remaining fifth, and to the government six per 
cent for forty-nine years on the sum advanced. The basis of the 
distribution of land was, for the most part, that portion of it occupied 
by the village communes in the large estates ; in case this was con- 
sidered insufficient, more was added. The domestic serfs, number- 
ino- 1,500,000, were compelled to serve the masters during two years, 
after which they were absolutely free, but had no claim to a share of 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 333 

"The working out of tbe new order in tbe relation of the peasant to 
the government direct, and his new share in self-government, is of 
course open to all the disadvantages of a state of experiment and 
transition. In the old mir there were the controlling forces in the 
background, of State officials in the State demesne, and of the pro- 
prietor on his estates, while in the village assemblies for local regula- 
tion the shrewd sagacity of the elder peasants bore sway and inter- 
preted the unwritten law. In the new community the few educated 
peasants have a great advantage over the ignorant ones, which is an 
argument for the speedy increase of free schools, as the temptation 
to use their superior advantages to their own profit is not always 
resisted. The discussions are noisier, and a certain amount of vaaka 
(brandy) distributed, is said often to carry a decision with it. Neither 
an act of Parliament nor an imperial edict can convey the spirit of 
self-government; it does but create the form, the rest must be left to> 
the slower growth of usage, supported by the education of the whole." 

In conclusion to these remarks on the systems of land-tenure prac- 
tised in Russia, in ancient Peru, and in Paraguay under Jesuit rule, — 
all resembling each other in the fundamental principle of a commune,, 
communality, commons, commonwealth, — I will trace in a few rough 
outlines the origin of this Communism, its sudden disappearance in 
Europe,, and its gradual revival in recent times. 

The Aryan race — that is, the Indo- Germanic tribes — alwa3's. 
held land in common. No individual could claim for himself a cer- 
tain parcel of land as his specific property. He might own and 
appropriate to his own exclusive use anything else, but not real es- 
tate. The land that he cultivated belonged to the community of which 
he was a member ; he had simply the use of it. Every year this use 
was continued, but it might happen that a different piece of ground 
would be allotted to him each year. A village composed of, say, one 
hundred adults, appropriated, for instance, five thousand acres for the 
use of its inhabitants. Now, instead of allowing each person to claim 
fifty acres as his individual property, the commune, or syndics, allowed 
him the whole or a portion of these fifty acres of land for cultivation 
upon a tenure from year to year. If at the end of one year his 
family had increased, he would receive an additional piece of land. 

This system of common land-tenure holds good still in many parts 
of India, as it still does in Russia, under the mir system, and as it 
had held good in ail Europe until the rise of the system of feudal 



334 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

land-tenure. Even at the present day, curious travellers may find 
traces of the commune in France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and the 
Low Countries. 

But when the life of the cultivator of the soil became a separate 
life from that of the dweller in cities, and between the two classes of 
free peasants and burghers there arose the class of serfs, as fighting 
men, — the warriors, who followed their liege lords or knights to the 
wars, — the foundation was laid for that system of feudal rule and tenure 
which held Europe in subjection until the close of the last century, and 
which is still predominant in Great Britain. The feudal system 
abolished the ancient law of the commune, concentrating the owner- 
ship of large landed estates in the hands of a few, whose exclusive 
ownership was perpetuated in each family by the laws of entail and 
primogeniture. The inhabitants of cities were not so much oppressed 
by this military sj^stem of feudal tenure, but the tillers of the soil 
were reduced to serfdom, and their burdens became intolerable. 

It was to the enslaved agricultural population of France, not to the 
denizens of the Faubourg St. Antoine, that we owe the French Eevo- 
lution of 1789. St. Antoine may claim that of 1793 without contra- 
diction ; but it was the peasant, not the citizen workman, who first 
organized the Jacobin clubs, and who started the chant of the Mar- 
seillaise. 

And what was the outcome of the great French Revolution of 1789? 
The destruction of the feudal system of land-tenure : firstly, in France ; 
and, secondly, over all Europe. Wherever the French army advanced, 
with its battle-cry of Liberie, Egalite, Fratemite, the feudal fabric of 
land-tenure crumbled into dust. 

Only one country was left untouched by this sweeping reform, — 
the country whereunto French armies could not penetrate, — Great 
Britain. There the feudal system, with all its despotic features, re- 
mains to this day. In every other European country, and all over Amer- 
ica, scarcely a vestige of it is to be found any more ; but in Great 
Britain, the dread of Napoleon and French invasion produced also such 
a dread of the political ideas which followed in the train of his armies, 
that the British mind was rendered as inaccessible to the new French 
ideas as the British soil was inaccessible to the French armies. But 
the time must come, and, in fact, is rapidly approaching, when Great 
Britain must give way to the new order of things, as the other coun- 
tries of Europe and America have been compelled to give way. 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 335 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE HISTOEICAL ORIGIN OF THE CONFLICT — CONTINUED. 

It is very evident, that neither of these practical solutions of the 
problem before us will satisfy modern civilization. Let us, therefore, 
retrace our steps, and see whether we cannot reach it from another 
point of view. 

With the disappearance of nomadic life there remained two classes 
of men, — the herdsmen and cultivators of the soil, and the inhabitants 
of the cities, — each class being desirous to effect an interchange of 
their respective commodities. Soon, however, as I have already 
said, a third class of middlemen — merchants — arose, who made 
this interchange their own especial business ; and, to facilitate it, 
Invented tokens representing the value of all kinds of commodities, 
which tokens came to be known as money. Now, so long as the 
dealings between the industrial and agricultural classes were carried 
on solely by direct barter, each party exchanging onl}^ for that of 
which he stood in actual or immediate need, there was little or no 
chance of any great inequality arising in regard to the value of the 
possessions of either class. The mechanic found it useless to manu- 
facture more than was necessary to supply his wants, and the farmer 
had no incentive to raise more grain or cattle than would serve his 
own needs and enable him to pi'ocure the tools which he needed 
from the mechanics of the cities. 

But with the invention of money-tokens there was stirred up in 
man's breast that most ineradicable of all passions, the desire to 
possess the future. Most ineradicable, perhaps, because most ideal. 
There is no present gratification in what lies beyond it ; there is noth- 
ing real, nothing substantial about it. And yet those men who, above 
all others, boast of their realism, their every-day practical wisdom 
and conduct, ai-e the very ones who are most zealous in their pursuit 
of the ideal future in its phantom shape of money ; just as those same 
men are preeminently anxious about immortality. The true idealist 
bothers himself very little about the future in either shape, but is very 
solicitous to engraft the ideal upon the present real world. He does 
not lay up hoards for the future, but works out, with his wordly 
treasures, the splendor of the ideal upon the present ; he does not 



336 LIBERTY AND LAAV. 

woriy himself about his immortality, but strives to lead an immortal 
life even here upon earth. 

The invention of money-tokens was, as I have said, the immediate 
cause which stirred up man's passion for the possession of the futui'e ; 
for these tokens, though also of daily direct use in effecting the inter- 
change of commodities, had necessarily another character, namely, 
that of being stored away and enabling the holder of them, at any 
time (present or future), to effect such interchange. The mechanic, 
who was able to manufacture more articles than were needed for his 
daily support, was thus induced to manufacture as many more of 
them as possible, and to exchange, or rather sell, this superfluitj^ for 
mo7iey, which he could use at any time and for the purchase of any- 
thing ; and the farmer was in the same way instigated to produce far 
above his necessities, since he was enabled to dispose of all his sur- 
plus for money, which he could hoard away for future use. This 
new state of affairs naturally placed in the hands of the man possess- 
ing the greater amount of ready money a greater power than was en- 
joyed by those who had less of it ; a power entirely different from 
the political power of the government officials, and from that of the 
wiser over the more ignorant of mankind ; a power which, in its abso- 
luteness, idealism, and unscrupulous exercise, finds a counterpart 
only in the power exercised by priestcraft through religious fanati- 
cism, — the power of wealth. 

Let us illustrate how the power might have been, and was exer- 
cised at the earliest times, as it is still exercised every day in all the 
money markets of the world : — 

Through long years of labor, economy, and what not other of 
financial virtues, let us suppose that one individual (A.) of a small 
community had been able to put aside and hoard a vast quantity of 
the money-tokens circulating in that community. With these money- 
tokens he could purchase any marketable commodity within that 
community, those tokens constituting, as they did, absolute propert}^ 
as distinguished from all other kinds of property. Then, taking ad- 
vantage of a bad wheat-season, let us say, he made use of them to 
purchase all the wheat within his reach. What was the result? All 
the wheat-consumers and bread-eaters of that community became his 
abject slaves, so far as that great necessary of life was concerned. 

This is precisely the phenomenon that occurs at the present day in 
every so-called "cornering" movement. It is the phenomenon of 
money-monopolies, — the power of the rich to grind down the poor. 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 337 



CHAPTER VI. 

ATTEMPTS AT THEORETICAL SOLUTIONS OF THE PROBLEM — 
THE RCSSLIN COMMUNISTS AND GERMAN SOCIALISTS. 

We have already seen that no practical means of removing this 
distinction have ever yet been devised by men ; the most perfect 
method — that of tlie form of government in ancient Peru — beins: 
incompatible with our civilization, and that of the ancient mir, or 
communistic, system in Russia — a relic of ancient Hindoo civiliza- 
tion — being also impracticable in our days, and, besides, imperfect 
in itself. 

Let us now see what theoretical means of doing away with this 
conflict between the rich and the poor have been devised. And here 
we shall, strangely enough, again have to recur to Russia ; for of tlie 
two plans proposed to settle this great social difficultly, one (the 
Socialistic), it is true, has its origin in Germany ; but the other 
(the Communistic) has, if not its origin, at least its most radical 
and uncompromising exponents in Russia. We will begin with the 
latter. 

It certainly seems strange that the most absolutely despotic country 
in the world, Russia, should also be the greatest Communistic volcano 
of the world. But so it has been, even for the past forty or fifty years, 
under the influence of German philosophical propagandists. Besides, 
it is well known that extremes always meet ; and it is therefore very 
fit that the absolute despotism of the "Father," as the Russians call 
their emperor, should find its dialectic opposite in the absolute Com- 
munism of the Bakonites, for both are inexorably despotic in the 
carrying out of their programmes : though the absolute Positivist, 
the Czar, has, in one respect at least, greatly the advantage over 
the absolute Nihilist, Bakonine, For, whereas the emperor extended 
to Bakonine the clemency of temporary exile, ^ Bakonine, under the 
same circumstances, would assuredly have expedited the Czar to 
permanent and far more remote exile by a prescription of dynamite. 
The Czar would have no government but that of his individual will ; 
the Bakonite is opposed to every kind of government. The Czar 



1 " What shall I do with this Balvonine," said he ; "I can neitlier hang him 
nor send liim to Siberia?" 

22 



666 LIBEETY AND LAW. 

* 

sometimes makes concessions, and on state occasions even smiles 
upon his subjects ; the Bakonite Communist neither concedes nor 
smiles. He has onlj' one passion : to break down civil order all 
over the civilized world, — to abolish or abrogate all the laws, all the 
customs, all the morals, and all the recognized ethics of the world. 
His sole object is destruction, — destruction of all that exists ; for 
all that exists is wrong. This is the Russian Communist's catechism ; 
these are the principles with which he has infected all Europe, and 
threatens to infect even our own country. 

The Socialists of Germany and France were innocent dreamers as 
compared with these melancholic preachers of Sclavonia, who have 
thus interpreted to them as the ultimate end of all liberty, — that is, 
liberty without law, —the gospel of universal destruction. The Com- 
mune of Paris would never have committed the atrocities which drew 
upon it the execrations of the world but for the teachings of those 
men of Russia, whom the horrors of absolute despotism had driven 
to believe that nothing could overcome it but the perpetration of still 
greater horrors. Even the literature of Western Europe and our own 
literature bear the impress of this Sclavonic Nihilism and Communism, 
as interpreted in the novels and poems of Russia. In Alfred de 
Musset's as in Baudelere's writings, in the English Saturday Review 
as in the daily press of the United States, we have the constant 
refrain ; Destroy ! destroy ! even as a few years ago we heard it here 
reechoed from the coal-mines of Pennsylvania to the railroads of the 
West. 

Let us stop to look a moment at this Michael Bakonine, the fore- 
most apostle of Russian Nihilism, though now he lies himself annihi- 
lated in the grave. When, some thirteen years ago, he retired from 
political life, he wrote : — 

" I ana tired of fighting any longer, having done nothing else my 
whole life. I am over sixty years old, and a painful heart-disease 
contributes still further to make existence hateful to me. Let other, 
3'ounger forces rally to the work. I have neither the power any more, 
nor, perhaps, the confidence in myself, to continue rolling the stone 
of Sisyphus incessantly upward against the always victorious reaction. 
Hence I retire from the field of battle, and ask of my dear fellow- 
men only this one thing, — • to forget me. Hereafter I shall disturb 
no one's rest any more; let no one, then, disturb mine." 

Bakonine entered life as an officer of artillery, but in earliest youth 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 339 

he had imbibed that wild spirit of revolution which is to be fovnid 
only in the most despotic of empires, — in Russia ; among the gloomi- 
est people in Europe, the Sclavonic. Graduated in the philosophy of 
Schelling, which was then the rage at Moscow, Bakouine soon threw 
that study aside to listen to the more exciting lectures of Belinski on 
history and politics. It was by this great Russian writer and historian 
that Bakonine was educated in the faith to which he has clung all his 
lifetime. Unable to conspire for the' realization of his ideas in Rus- 
sia, Bakonine resigned his position in the army and went to Paris, 
where he remained several years, and became the advocate of the 
Poles, — of the people whom he had all his life been taught to look 
upon as an inferior race, utterly unable to govern themselves. Then 
came the revolution of 1848, and Bakonine passed over into Ger- 
many, the great revolutionary centre of that period. Here he worked 
like a beaver, — planning, conspiring, and organizing secret societies 
and labor unions everywhere ; and teaching his wild doctrine of the 
abolition of all government and lawful authority. In Dresden — 
where his exploits as dictator of that city are still remembered — he 
was captured with his arms in his hands, and condemned to death, but 
his punishment was subsequently commuted to imprisonment for life. 
On being claimed b}' Russia, however, the German authorities gave 
him up. In Russia he was kept in prison from 1849 to 1855, and 
was then sent to Siberia. From Siberia he escaped to Japan, crossed 
over to the United States, and from here went to Switzerland, where 
he devoted himself exclusively to the propagation of his doctrines. 
These doctrines may be summed up as follows : Destruction of every 
form of political State ; substitution for it of workingmen's associa- 
tions ; collective property in land ; the common appropriation of all 
the instruments of labor ; and atheism in religion and materialism in 
philosophy. 

In his life, Bakonine has been a pretty good illustration of the re- 
sults his doctrines would make universal, if carried out. He has 
always been impecunious, and compelled to rely upon the support of 
personal friends. But, according to him, this is the natural condition 
of a "revolutionary," for in his recently published "revolutionary 
catechism," Bakonine says: — 

"The revolutionary is a sacred person. He has no individual inter- 
est, no business, no feelings, no inclinations, no property, and even 
no name. He has only one thought, one passion, — revolution He 



340 LIBERTY AKD LAW. 

has completely broken with civil order «in the whole civilized world; 
with laws, customs, morals, and all the recognized ethics of this- 
world. He repudiates all the science of this world by saving it for 
future generations, and for himself knows onl}^ one science, — de- 
struction. Cold towards himself, he must be so also toward others ; 
all feelings of inclinations — all effeminating sentiments of gratitude, 
friendship, love, and relationship — must be quenched in him by the 
one cold passion of his revolutionary work. Day and night, without, 
cessation, he must have one single thought, one single object, — un- 
compromising destruction ; and to obtain this object, he must be 
ready to die himself, and to kill with his own hands 'all those who- 
hinder him in his object." 

And this is the programme of the Bakonites, as put before the 
world in the last congress of the party, held at Verviers, Switzer- 
land : — ^ 

Private property is no longer to be recognized, whether it consists- 
of lands, buildings, moneys, manufactures, or any other species of 
property. It is all to become the common propert}^ of separate 
groups of workingmen, into which the whole world is to be divided, 
after all governmental and State organizations, as at present existing, 
shall have been successfully abolished. There are to be no more 
States, no legislatures, no municipaUties, and no courts, — nothing' 
but these bodies of workingmen, who are to form temporary unions 
for specific purposes, and after the attainment of those purposes, to 
separate again. 

An instance of the manner in which this is to be accomplished 
was furnished during the short existence of the late Spanish Re- 
public, while the eloquent Castelar was president, in the case of 
the manufacturing city, Carthagena, where the Workingmen' s 
part}^ — the Bakonine Communists — had taken control of the place 
and held it for a long time against the republican government. A 
republican government was as odious to them as a monarchical gov- 
ernment, — nay, seemingly even more so. These Bakonites, or 
extreme Communists, whose chief strength lies in parts of France, 
Italy, and Spain, but more especially in Russia, are fanatic in their 
demand for the abolition of all government, and the establishment in 
its place of a community of interest in all things, even in women. 
As concert of action in one general movement is impossible, under 
their programme, they propose to accomplish it piecemeal, as in the 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 341 

case of Carthagena, referred to, and as iu the ease of the strikes of 
some years ago in various cities of the United States, which strikes 
also received the indorsement of the Verviers congress. Each place, 
however, where the workingmen make a movement, is to receive the 
support of all other workingmen' s organizations over the world. 
It is a notorious fact, that the late strike movement in this countr}^ 
received its main support from Europe, and that its leaders acted 
throughout, and still act, in conjunction with and sometimes under 
instructions of the most prominent of the European leaders. There 
is, however, one point wherein the ultra Communists and the Work- 
ingmen's part}^, as it exhibits itself in the United States, differ mate- 
rially, and which will explain — what to most of our people has seemed 
inexplicable — the rupture between the Communistic element of the 
strikers and the element of the Workingmen proper. This is, that the 
real Communists do not desire their members to strike for higher 
icages, but for the abrogation of all tuages, and the overthrow of ail 
forms of government. This was, indeed, expressed in so many words 
at the Verviers congress. The real Communistic programme is set 
forth in these words, from one of their organs, the Carthagena Los 
DasTcamisados : — 

"Let everytliing be for every one, even the women. From 'this 
beautiful disorder, or rather, this orderly disorder, the true harmony 
will arise. But before our programme is cai-ried out, it will be nec- 
essary to purify society. A short, but large and uncommon blood- 
letting will be necessary. The rotten branches of the social tree must 
be cut off, in order that it may grow up strong and healthy. Such 
are our desires and tendencies, and, knowing them, tremble now, all 
ye well-to-do citizens, for your tA'ranny approaches its end. Make 
room for the shirtless ! Our black flag is unfolded ! War upon the 
family ! War upon property ! War upon God ! ' ' 

The Communists of Germany, who call themselves Socialists, and 
whose chief leaders at present are Marx and Liebknecht, differ some- 
what in their purposes from the Bakonites, though it is very clear 
that they will finally be driven to accept the same extreme stand- 
point. At their last congress in Geneva, in which the Bakonites, 
however, also participated, their programme was laid down as fol- 
lows : — • 

All landed property and all other means of labor — meaning, evi- 
dently, raih'oads, telegraphs, factories, mines, and business agencies 



342 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

generally — must become the property of the State, or of the com- 
munity, which includes and represents the whole people. The pro- 
letariat (workingmen) must organize itself as a special party, and 
make use of all possible, even political, means to effect the social 
emancipation of its members. From its meetings all shall be ex- 
cluded who do not earn their livelihood solely by manual labor. In 
the war of the laboring classes against the holders of property, it is 
very useful to form workingmen' s clubs ; but it is an antiquated 
notion if these clubs or societies strive for higher wages. They 
should seek to abolish the present system of wages altogether ; and 
to effect this, should establish an international union, pledging each 
of its members to direct his efforts towards that end. This inter- 
national workingmen' s union should be formed on the principle of 
the revolutionary solidarity of the unions, and all these societies 
should mutually assist each other whenever in any country a revolu- 
tionary movement has been started. 

Such, in outline, are the two programmes of the Communists and 
Socialists, both equally impracticable, and subversive of the very pur- 
poses which they aim to accomphsh. Their pretended end is liberty ; 
but, by leaving the law element out, their intended liberty becomes 
despotism. Neither Eussian Communism nor German Socialism 
respects the freedom of the individual, so dear to the heart of every 
Anglo-Saxon, and to secure which should be the aim of every indi- 
vidual and every government. 



CHAPTEE Vn. 



THE HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF THE CONFLICT — CONCLUDED. 

We have seen how, along with the invention of money, men began 
to live in the future and hoard their treasures for the future. The 
subsequent invention of money of account, banks, government bonds, 
and other fictitious or ideal money, — with the curse of interest there- 
unto attached, — gave a still stronger impetus in this direction; and 
these men of the future, of wealth, of the ideal, came to be known 
as capitahsts. Now, when it happened that it was a manufacturer 
who thus became a capitalist, or that a capitalist turned manufacturer 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 343 

in order to increase his riches,- there arose a new relation between the 
employer and his employees which had been previousl}' unknown. 
The employer, keeping his ideal of accumulating wealth for future, 
purposes always in clear view, came to take special pains to curtail 
as much as possible the wages of his employees and advance as 
much as possible the price of his manufactures. For now he was 
able to put aside the difference in money, which would at anjr time 
enable him to purchase such luxuries as he or his descendants might 
desire to enjoy. Mone}^ made man a miser. This greatest blessing, 
invented for civilization, was thus changed into a curse. The misery 
of this curse was still further enhanced when the owner of money 
discovered that he could increase his mone3'--treasures b}^ loaning it 
out for a time to persons who were in immediate want of money, and 
would be sure to repay him ultimately, either in returning the money 
or giving its equivalent in labor. For these loans, of course, a 
charge was made, — a charge which we nowadays call interest. The 
miser thus became a usurer, and the lot of those who had no money 
(of the poor) became infinitely more wretched than ever, in compar- 
ison with the lot of those who had hoarded it. But the worst did 
not come to pass till the moneyed men clubbed together and estab- 
lished corporations of all kinds, against which any combination that 
the poor might seek to effect seemed powerless. The}^ are so power- 
less until this day. 

In the agricultural districts, on the other hand, the curse of money 
and interest made itself manifest by a desire on the part of the 
farmer to establish a hoard of treasure by increasing his landed pos- 
sessions, and having the work, which he and his family were unable 
to do, done by wandering tribes of workmen, who, in course of time, 
gave rise to the institution of tramps. In this case, however, the 
tramp laborer had the advantage of his employer during certain 
seasons of the year. When the crops had to be harvested, the laborer 
was the despot and the farmer the slave. If the laborer could not 
at one place obtain the wages which he saw fit to demand, he passed 
on to the next farm, leaving the one previously visited to its own 
devices as to the hest means of reaping the results of a whole year's 
labor. The manufacturer, especially if combining with others of his 
class, was in a position to dictate to his workingmen. The tramp 
workingmen of the country dictated to the farmer in harvest time. 
And thus stands the conflict this day. 



344: LIBERTY AND LAW. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

THE SYNTHETICAL SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM. 

The problem was to establish an equitable relation between capital 
and labor, or the rich and the poor, — the latter phrase signifying the 
non-rich. The Communists and Socialists propose to settle this prob- 
lem, as I haA'e shown, by abolishing all property, and making impos- 
sible a distinction between the rich and the poor, which, as I have 
said before, is in reality no solution at all ; for the solution of a 
problem is not effected by simply negating the elements that compose 
it, but onty by uniting them in a higher synthesis. Now, this syn- 
thesis is a cooperative government of the people, by the people, and 
for the people, such as is described at length in this book ; and 
hence this work, not in anj^ special part thereof, but in all its parts, 
taken together, constitutes the real solution of the problem ; and 
whenever all the requirements of a rational, federative, cooperative, 
republican form of government that are herein laid down shall have 
been full}^ carried into practice, the conflict between capital and labor 
will have ceased to exist. I say, all the requirements ; for in a com- 
plete synthesis all the parts composing it are necessarilj'^ connected, 
and- one cannot stand without the other. Without my money-system, 
my taxation-system cannot stand ; without the prohibition of all public 
debts hereaftei", the burden of the people cannot be made lighter ; 
without my telegraph-system, the national daily newspaper would fail 
of its purpose ; without public hygiene, public education cannot be 
carried out ; and without public education, the whole fabric of our 
government will fall to pieces. I might carry this exposition out to 
the minutest detail, but every reader will easily be able, by himself, 
to trace the connecting links throughout the book. I may add, how- 
ever, that in this synthesis are also united the attempted practical and 
the attempted theoretical solutions of this great social problem. All 
that was just and good for the whole people under the form of gov- 
ernment of the Mosaic code, of ancient Peru, or of Paraguay, and 
all that is just and good in the proposed schemes of the Socialists and 
Communists, will be developed under my system of a cooperative 
government ; and yet none of the blessings of a vigorous govern- 
ment of law, and none of the blessings of a free, federative republic 
will be sacrificed. 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 345 

I will conclude by a few pi'actical suggestions for the immediate 
relief of the present intolerable state of things, which makes life a 
veritable curse. to the immense majority of mankind, — the poorer 
classes. 

The danger arising to the workingmen from the cooperation of 
moneyed men who emplo}'^ them, can, as I have already suggested, be 
largel}^ and peaceably averted by placing all means of public inter- 
communication in the hands of the government. The national means 
of public intercommunication would, of c6urse, pass into the hands 
of the national government. But there are also local means of pub- 
lic intercommunication which are not of national significance. Each 
State, for instance, has its local railroads, its common roads, its rivers, 
its canals, and public buildings ; each county and each city its im- 
provements to make ; and for all these enterprises the various munic- 
ipal and State governments must employ labor, which enables them 
also to enter into competition with the other private enterprises in 
the State that employ large forces of labor, and, at least in a large 
measure, determine the price of labor. But the chief means whereby 
my system of government will wipe away as much as possible the 
present enormous distinction between rich and poor, and at least 
obviate the worst of its features, — oppression on the one side, and 
hatred and revolt on the other side, — is the establishment of the 
absolute national-money S3'Steai I have sketched out in a previous 
article. 

Not only will the issue of this money by the government make pos- 
sible the construction of those internal improvements of which I have 
just spoken, but it will also materially lessen the lust for the pos- 
session of enormous gains by the abolition of bonds, and hence of 
interest on our national securities. 

It is one of the greatest incentives to hoard money, that it can 
be invested in securities which are the equivalent of money in all re- 
spects, and have the additional advantage of increasing the amount of 
money which they represent, without any exertion on the part of their 
holder, and without being subject to taxes. But this absolute secur- 
itj'' can be obtained only in National, State, and municipal bonds, the 
issue of which will be altogether prohibited under my proposed sys- 
tem. Nor will the holder of money be able to gratif}^ another vicious 
taste which has arisen under the metallic system of money : that of 
revelling in the sight and touch of gold and silver coins ; for under 



346 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

my system the coining of those metals will cease, and they will be used 
in the future only for ornaments, as they were used altogether in 
Peru and Mexico, the two countries most rich in gold and silver in 
their primitive times. In other words, it will root out thd worst pas- 
sion that afflicts the human race^ — love of money for its own sake, — 
and put an end to the vice of usury. The holder of money will be 
compelled, in his own interest, to invest it in business enterprises, 
which will necessitate the employment of labor in such large quanti- 
ties as shall insure each laborer fair wages, and therewith a fair share 
of the necessities and comforts of life. 

The same effect will be produced in another way, if the measures 
that I have suggested in the article on Taxation should be adopted in 
regard to accumulated capital. When the money-monopolizing mono- 
maniac learns that he cannot increase his hoards beyond a certain 
amount without paying a very large percentage thereof to the State in 
the way of taxes, and that after his death government will step in and 
claim a proper share of his wealth for the benefit of the whole com- 
munity, from which he has drawn it during his lifetime, and thus 
place it in circulation again, instead of allowing it to accumulate even 
after his death, he will no longer feel so strong an attachment for 
unnecessary riches ; and the days of the Rothchilds and VanderbUts 
will have come to an end. 

But even all these measures will only in a certain degree remove 
the burden of the poorer classes, and will not fully solve the conflict 
between the rich and the poor, unless they are at the same time 
accompanied by the abolition of that curse of modern life, which 
followed the downfall of the feudal system of wai-fare, — the curse 
of standing armies. This applies at the present time, of course, 
chiefly to Europe ; but even the United States may take the lesson 
to heart as a warning for the future, as I have already suggested 
in the preceding article on the Police, 

In a former part of this work I have pointed out the most 
flagrant horrors to which this system of standing armies leads, — the 
brutal and endless butcheries on the battle-field, the unpitying cruelty 
with which it sucks the best life-blood out of a nation, breaks up 
every tie of family, breeds a new crop of heroes to fill oflficial sin- 
ecures, and destroys every sense of the glory of civil hberty by 
stirring up the ferocious pride of the soldier ; but it is well in this 
place again to refer, and more in detail, to the less immediately 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 347 

perceptible burden which it imposes on the people, — the monetarjs, 
burden. 

I quote from a speech lately delivered by Mr. H. Richard, in the 
House of Commons of Great Britain : — 

" During the fifteen 3'ears between 1859 and 1874 there has been an 
addition to the armed forces of Europe of two million men. The total 
cost of the armaments of Europe have been estimated at £500,000,000 
[$2,500,000,000] a year, and this vast expenditure is growing with 
appalling rapidity. The annual public expenditure in Europe has risen 
from £398,000,000 in 1865 to £585,000,000 in 1879, being an increase 
of £187,000,000 in the course of those fourteen j^eai's. In Russia 
and German}^ that expenditure has more than doubled. The future 
was mortgaged for the needs of the present, European national debts 
having swelled in that period from £2,626,000,000 to £4,324,000,000. 
Germany, which in 1865 spent on the army and navy £10,000,000, 
now expends £21,000,000 ; and Russia has increased her expenditure 
on the services in the same period from £22,000,000 to £36,000,000. 
By far the largest amount of the revenues of all European nations is 
applied in either paying the interest of debts contracted in former years^ 
or making pireparations for future tears. Only two classes of the 
population are exempt from taking part in warfare, viz., the women 
and the clergy. The pretext constantly alleged for these great arma- 
ments is, that these sacrifices secure quiet, confidence, and a sense of 
security. They might just as well say, "You who wish for sobriety, 
prepare for drunkenness," as advise nations who desire peace to 
prepare for war. During the last twenty-five years there have been 
six sanguinary wars, involving a sacrifice of two million human beings 
and £3,000,000,000 [$15,000,000,000] of money. The existence of 
these enormous armaments is an incessant provocative to war ; and 
the finances of the great States, or many of them, are in a condition 
of embarrassment ; while the effect of the wars in which those arma- 
ments have been engaged sink multitudes of the people in poverty, 
misery, and ignorance. How beneficial ivould have been the effect on 
the material and moral condition of the population of Europe if a 
large proportion of the broad stream of toealth poured into the bottom- 
less abyss of military expenditure had been employed in irrigating the 
waste places of humanity.'' 

It is often pleaded in behalf of these enormous outlaj^s for arma- 
ments, as against the complaints of the poorer classes, that they in 



348 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

ueality benefit the poor, in affording them employment and steady pay 
when there is no work to be had and money is scarce ; and, secondly, 
that the monetary burden falls, after all, chiefly on the rich, as the 
chief tax-payers. But both of these pleas ignore facts as well as 
logic. Some people are apt to make use of the word " tax-payer " as 
if tax-payers were a distinct class of the population, whereas in point 
of fact every citizen is, under our present system of taxation, a tax- 
payer. Upon every article of food that enters his mouth, and every 
article of clothing that he wears, he must of necessity pay taxes, and 
double taxes ; for the merchant from whom he purchases, charges 
him not only the duties and taxes levied by the government on those 
clothes and that food, but also his commission on advancing the pay- 
ment of those duties and taxes, besides a good percentage on the 
merchant's license-tax he has to pay for the privilege of conducting 
his business, and on the rent he has to pay for his place of business. 
Again, every citizen, no matter of what age or sex, pays a tax on the 
house he has rented, for his landlord is sure to include it in his rental ; 
nay, even the wages that he gets are reduced in proportion to the 
amount of taxes that his employer has to pay. Hence every citizen 
has to bear an equal share of the burden of the amounts levied in 
support of those extravagant militarj^ armaments ; in other words, it 
is the poorer, and not the wealthier class, upon whom the burden of 
taxation chiefly falls. The wealthier class, under the present system 
of taxation, apioear to pay a large share ; but, in point of fact, shove 
this burden from their shoulders upon those of the poorer class. 

As for the other point, — that war gives employment to those who 
otherwise would be without employment, — I have to say only, that if 
the mone}^ now wasted for armaments were used for public improve- 
ments, there would be an abundance of healthy mind as well as 
moral-improving work for every citizen, and no one would need to 
brutalize or Csesarize himself by becoming a butcher of his fellow- 
men. 

Work for all men and education for all men : these are the two 
great levers that will, if employed as I have sketched out throughout 
this work, secure those grand aims w4iich were laid down in the 
fundamental principles of this work as the highest ideal which the 
human race can reach under Liberty and Law. 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 



PART THIRD. 



(349) 



DOMESTIC EELATIOISTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

MAERIAGE. 



Nature has separated the human race, for the purpose of its per- 
petuation, into sexes, the union of which has thus become the most 
important event of human life. In one way or another, every form 
of legislation has attempted to regulate this union, but in no instance 
of history, except the monogamic code of Moses, has this regulation 
proceeded from rational principles. It has always been based on 
traditional notions and existing facts and prejudices. Nevertheless, 
it is of infinite importance to the State ; for on this union depends the 
transmission of name and property, and therefore it is one of the 
main factors in the realization of man's freedom and self-determi- 
nation. 

The reason why legislation has blundered more in its attempts to 
regulate the union of the sexes than in almost any other field, is to be 
found in the fact that it has confounded the moral with the legal 
point of view. From a moral point of view, the woman is, in the 
union of the sexes, the passive element, her whole activity centering 
in love ; that is, in the surrendering of herself to the chosen one. 
She cannot have any other active motive without debasing herself in 
her own eyes, as well as in the eyes of all others, — without, indeed, 
what has been so emphatically termed prostituting herself. The 
male, on the contrary, seeks the woman. He is not actuated by such 
love, — meaning love to signif}^ the surrendering of one's self to 
another for that other's sake, — and could not have that motive with- 
out debasing himself and ths woman also. No man can surrender 
himself to a woman, with the self-conscious motive to gratify her, 
without the utmost degradation, whereas woman needs that very 

(351) • 



352 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

motive to retain her self-esteem. This is the peculiarity of the moral 
relation between the sexes, and more or less typified in all physical 
phenomena, as well as recognized by universal public opinion. 

It has been the mistake of the law-givers to take cognizance of this 
moral relation and apply it in the operation of the law, where it 
necessarily assumed a different shape, altogether wrong and unjust. 
In the moral world, woman does not take lower rank because her 
whole activity in the union of the sexes is love, nor man higher rank 
because his activity is primarily passionate. Both are in all respects 
equal, each acting according to her and his organization. But under 
the conception of law, which cannot take cognizance of love, the 
passiveness of the woman placed her in a subordinate position, and 
thus it chanced that legislation did not recognize woman as the equal 
of man. Hence the most absurd laws regarding matrimony, the re- 
lation between the sexes, the property of women, and inheritance, — 
laws that have been, and are. still, the disgrace of mankind, and 
which were imposed upon woman without her consent. 

I propose to consider these matters on purely rational grounds, 
without regard to traditional notions and prejudices. 

It is clear that the law should make no distinction whatever between 
man and woman while they are single, or between men and widows. 
In all matters of property, personal right, and political position the 
law should apply equally to both sexes, and secure to each the power 
to realize the greatest good and happiness from the fit and harmoni- 
ous exercise of all the faculties of their minds and bodies. 

It is also apparent that a legislation which deprives woman of her 
personality during marriage is barbarous, and, moreover, absurd 
where such legislation allows divorces ; for, if the marriage merged 
the woman's personality into that of the man, how could any subse- 
quent declaration of the law separate that personality again ? It may 
be logical enough that the Church, which assumes to legislate accord- 
ing to the moral law, should entertain this view of having the wife's 
personahty once and forever joined with that of the husband ; but it 
was a strange lapse of rational procedure that the common law, which 
pretends to look upon marriage as a civil contract, should have re- 
tained a hke conception, so utterly at variance with this its fundamental 
principle. No man loses his personality by entering into a civil con- 
tract. Why, then, should a woman lose hers? In her moral con- 
sciousness she may thus submerge hers, and may be bound to do so ; 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 353 

but no government, unless it become theocratic and a hierarcliy, can-, 
consider this view of internal morality, or legislate concerning it. 

The government is not to apply the moral law, which addresses 
itself purely to the individual, but simplj^ to furnish the means of its 
fullest realization, by empowering each citizen of the State to attain 
the greatest good, happiness, and wisdom for himself and others. 

Hence the law must place man and woman in all respects on a 
footing of perfect equalit}^ and secure to the married woman the 
same rights of personality which are claimed for the husband. The 
law, regarding marriage purely as a civil contract for a specific pur- 
pose, should be advised of the fact that the contract is made, and of 
its conditions, if there be any. Hence every such contract should 
be recorded in the proper public office, and every failure so to record 
it should subject the husband to a fine. 

But in the absence of any written or other evidence of marriage, 
the cohabitation of a man and woman as husband and wife should 
constitute marriage ; and the simple cohabitation of man and woman, 
by living together in the same house, occupying the same apartments, 
and deporting themselves as if they were married, should also consti- 
tute marriage in fact, whereby both parties would be estopped from 
den3dng the existence of the marriage. The law should always, in 
such cases of cohabitation, presume marriage to exist, thereby sup- 
pressing prostitution and seduction as far as practicable. 

Concerning the conditions of marriage contracts where the}'^ exist, 
they must be carried out according to their intent and meaning, but 
the)' should appl}^ O'^ly to property or rights then existing ; as to all 
gains, earnings, and profits during mai'riage. they should be disposed 
of according to the principles of the Code Napoleon, and no marriage 
contract should affect them, except in cases of divorce. The law of 
copartnership would apply, with the exception that in case of mar- 
riage the relation must continue during life, or until the termination 
of it by a decree of divorce. Any other rule would render it impos- 
sible for the law to provide for the children, by regulating the trans- 
mission of propert}'' and inheritance, which should be regulated in 
accordance with a code requiring the descent to the right heirs of 
the deceased party, according to their degrees of consanguinity, so 
as to limit all devises to others to one-sixth or one-tenth of the estate 
descending in such cases. No parent should be permitted b}^ law to 
exclude the children born in lawful wedlock from their inheritance, 

23 



354 . LIBERTY AND LAW. 

except in cases of gross ingratitude, or rebellion against just and 
legal parental authority. 

Divorces should be granted, where both parties consent, if proper 
provisions are made for the husband, wife, and children, and ap- 
proved by the court. If either party objects to the divorce, the 
question should be decided by the court according to justice and 
equit3% under all the circumstances of the case ; but whenever it is 
manifest that a fatal disagreement or incompatibility of temper exists 
between the parties, the divorce should be granted, for the marriage 
has no longer any real existence when love has fled and a divorce is 
applied for. Indeed, in such cases cohabitation of husband and wife 
is no longer a sacrament, as the Church fondly supposes, but flagrant 
prostitution ; and a state of divorce is much preferable to a state of 
criminality. All marriage contracts should provide for the disposi- 
tion of all the property belonging to either party prior to the mar- 
riage, in case of a divorce being decreed by the court ; so that on 
the happening of such an event the contract would govern in the 
division of the estates, unless special equities were shown to exist. 

Where both parties consent to a divorce, and the marriage contract 
provides for the disposition of the property and the children upon 
the liappening of such an event, the divorce should be decreed with- 
out any proofs or examination into the circumstances, as a matter of 
course. But if either party consenting to the divorce should set up 
any special equitable circumstances, or claims to the property or the 
custody' of the children, in contravention of the terms of the ante- 
nuptial contract, the court should determine them when the divorce 
is granted. 

No disability of either party for contracting any future marriage 
should ever be decreed on granting a divorce, unless it appears from 
the evidence on the hearing that the guilty party is of unsound mind, 
or of a cruel and barbarous nature, dangerous to human liberty or 
life, in which case such guilty party may be forever barred from con- 
tracting another marriage. 

In case of lunacy or insanity of one of the parties to the marriage, 
if such lunacy or insanity becomes incurable, and is so found by a 
jury, the other party to the marriage should be able to obtain a 
decree of divorce on condition of providing for and securing a rea- 
sonable support for life of the lunatic or insane person. 

If the oarties contracting marriage do not desire a divorce from 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 355 

the bonds of matrimony, but from any cause determine to live sepa- 
rate and apart from each other, and cannot agree to a division of 
their property between them, and as to the custody of the children, 
they should be permitted to apply to the court for a decree to deter- 
mine their just rights and equities under all the circumstances of 
their case. 

If either party compels the other, in such case, to abandon the 
homestead, residence, or place of abode of husband and wife, the 
injured party should be permitted to apply to the court for a reason- 
able support and maintenance during any such period, or for life. 

In all cases of divorce for impotency, the court may decree the 
party demanding a divorce for such reason to support the other 
partj' during life. 

The rule of law in general copartnerships is, that each partner is 
responsible for the debts and liabilities of the firm of which he is a 
member, and this rule should appl}' to the relation of husband and 
wife during marriage, if there is no contract. There should be a 
unity of interests in this relation during its continuance, except only 
so far as this may be changed by ante-nuptial contracts. 

Marriage being a civil contract made under the law, or sanctioned 
by it when it exists cle facto, the State should determine the age for 
its consummation, the disabilities that should prevent or annul it, and 
the impediments to its existence between certain persons. The act 
should be the unbiased, deliberate resolve of the parties ; no other 
influence but pure, disinterested love should prompt it, and both par- 
ties should know precisely in what legal relation the}^ will thereafter 
stand to each other. Each party should be free from all disorders of 
a hereditary character, or otherwise tending to shorten life or to 
afRict the children that may be born of the marriage, and all possible 
precautions should be taken to prevent the matrimonial union of dis- 
eased or unsound persons. 

It is, however, the interest of the State, as the only effective 
remedy against prostitution and seduction, that reasonably early mar- 
riages should be encouraged. Under such a s^'stem of schools as I 
have proposed, whereby every pupil will be educated for a vocation 
in life, the contracting parties would both be able to earn a living, 
and early marriages would become the rule instead of the excep- 
tion. The chief obstacles to marriage in early life are, the uncer- 
tainty of the bridegroom that he will be able to make a livings 



356 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

and a fear that the girl whom he intends to make his wife may not 
have the abiUty or inclination to conduct tlieir new household on 
economical pi'inciples. It is somewhat singular that the extravagant 
mode of living in our free countrj'^ should in this way place the 
same restraint upon our marriages which in many countries of 
Europe interpose to prevent them. There the poor young people^ 
who would gladly marry, and be content jointly to face the future by 
the exercise of industry and economy, are met by the interference of 
government, in some form or other, lest they or their offspring should 
become a burden to the community ; here the young withhold from 
marriage because they themselves contemplate this result. The con- 
sequence, in Europe, is a cohabitation of the couple without the mar- 
riage ceremon}^, a state of things already so common in Vienna that, 
legalized marriages among the poor are the exception. In our own 
country the result has been an increase of prostitution, which is 
steadily undermining the health, morality, and happiness of the 
people. 

My system of schools proposes to check the growth of this evil at 
its very root, by furnishing to every man and woman of the country 
an education for a vocation that will always secure him or her a live- 
lihood, and also by teaching every woman how to conduct a house- 
hold in the most economical way, and carry it on upon safe business- 
principles. 

This would also check the tendency in some women to extrav- 
agance, and living beyond the legitimate means of their husbands'^ 
incomes, which is the ruin of so many business men, who are often 
led into hazardous ventures and I'eckless speculations in order ta 
gratify the extravagant tastes of proud, idle, or vain wives. 

As the system of law herein proposed will become the surest bul- 
wark of defence against the enslavement of woman, under the differ- 
ent forms of despotism that have hitherto oppressed her, it is espe- 
cially the duty of woman to aid the estabhshment of this system of 
government by all the means in her power, and particularly by setting- 
such an example of economy, industry, self-sacrifice, frugality, and 
temperance in all things, in the household and in society, as will 
show her to be worthy of that full equality with man under the laws 
to which this sj^stem would elevate her. 

It will become the duty of the Federal government to establish the 
monogamic system of marriage as a universal rule in the States of 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 357 

the republic. This can be accomplished only b}' an amendment of 
the Constitution of the United States for that purpose, prohibiting in 
all parts of the republic that polygam}' which has already raised, its 
poisonous crest in Utah, and is beginning to show its demoralizing 
effects as the Chinese immigration increases. Polygamy is the 
foundation-stone of all the Asiatic despotisms, and under its corrup- 
tions the female sex has everywhere sunk to a depth of slavery and 
•degradation almost inconceivable. Human liberty and free govern- 
ments are wholly incompatible with polygamy or prostitution in any 
form. 

It will appear from the foregoing that I claim for every individual, 
male or female, the same position of political rights and equality in 
the State, the husband always representing the head of the family, 
according to natural laws. This should be no new claim to those 
who have examined the history of our race. That eminent English 
jtirist. Sir Henry Maine, has shown most conclusivel}', in his recent 
■Oxford lectures, that woman, in early history, did occupy that very 
station to which the advocates of free representative governments 
now seek to elevate her again. Through the Roman law, the Hindoo 
law, and the laws of Western Europe, all these being branches of the 
original law of the Arj^an race, he has traced the same original notion 
of the full equality of the sexes. There is no doubt that the sep- 
arate property of the wife was conceded by the old Hindoo laws far 
more thoroughly than it is even now by most of the States of modern 
liurope. 

The influence of the hierarchical teachings of Bi-ahma, combined 
with the spi'ead of polj'gamic practices, has gradually lowered the 
position of women in the Orient below that even of the slave, while 
in our own civilization woman has passed through the reverential 
phase of chivalry — which assigned to her a romantically exalted 
station — to her present condition of almost absolute equality with 
man. It now only remains to secure to her this rational condition 
for all time, on proper principles, so as to perpetuate our free institu- 
tions upon the solid foundations of universal suffrage and political 
equality for all men and women, in their triune characteristics of 
knowledge, wealth, and individuality. 



358 LIBEBTY AND LAW. 

CHAPTER II. 

CHILDEEN. 

The children are to beconae the future citizens of the State, and 
upon their proper education and development the ultimate success of 
our free republican institutions depends. The addition to our popu- 
lation arises from natural increase and immigration from foreign 
countries. 

Hitherto immigration has been allowed to flow into our States from 
every quarter, without any proper restriction or supervision ; and it 
has already become manifest that no^ State can 'safely continue this 
policy without subjecting its citizens to all kinds of demoralizing, 
hierarchical, and corrupting influences. The Federal government 
alone can regulate this matter, and it is the plain duty of Congress to 
pass laws preventing the immigration of slaves, criminals, vagrants, 
pauper children, and other vagabonds, -^ the human wrecks of des- 
potic civilizations. So far as the wi-etched pauper and orphan chil- 
dren are concerned, the State should assert its right to educate and 
provide for them at the public expense ; and as for the children of 
citizens or foreigners born here, it is of the greatest interest to the 
State that they should receive the best education practicable, and be 
perfected in the department of life they maj' choose for their respec- 
tive vocations. The system of schools hereinbefore described would 
furnish the means to accomplish this beneficent object, and increase 
the value and usefulness of the generation growing up under it more 
than a hundred-fold, and diminish crime and immorality in the same 
proportion. 

But the question arises. Will the parents take advantage of these 
public means for education, and send their children to the State 
schools? The child naturally belongs to the parents, who are its 
natural protectors and instructors. Nature gave them offspring to 
educate and fit them for active life. The right of parents to control 
their children and exercise just authority over them cannot be ques- 
tioned, and for this reason the State has no right to compel parents 
to send them to the public schools. In all these matters there should 
be no compulsion. The schools proposed to be established would 
necessarily be the best, for all purposes of general and special in- 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 359 

struction, ever founded in any age of the world ; but private schools 
may be founded upon the same plan and carried on, or the existing 
schools of all kinds may be remodelled and reformed so as to carry 
out the same objects. Though this would involve an unnecessary 
expense to parties undertaking the enterprise for private or sectarian 
purposes, the right of doing so would be unquestionable. 

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that 'a large majority of the children 
in the State, especially in the agricultural districts, would attend the 
State public-schools ; and whenever a child over the age of ten 3'ears 
should appeal for education and admission to the State schools, and 
it should appear that its parents do not educate it, then it should be 
admitted, maintained if necessary, and taught at the public expense. 
Children having no known parents, or whose parents have died, leav- 
ing them destitute, should be maintained and educated at the public 
expense for a vocation. So also the children who may be abandoned 
by their parents, guardians, or protectors, should be placed under 
the guardianship of the State and educated. Our " houses of refuge," 
etc., conducted as thej^ are at present, are a disgrace to civilization. 
In like manner, all children who are sent out by their parents to beg, 
in any guise, or to become outcasts, thieves, or vagrants in society, 
should be placed under the guardianship of the State and educated. 

In order to provide for the better moral training and management 
of all such children, a s^^stem might be adopted to place them with 
families in the rural districts having few or no children of their own,, 
so that they might be adopted if possible, and where they could attend 
the common and agricultural schools, and enjoy the benefit of domes- 
tic cai'e and instruction at the expense of the State, which, in the 
majority of instances, would be very trifling, as the child after twelve 
years of age would generally be able to earn its own living, without 
interfering with its proper education for the A'ocation of a farmer or 
for other business. If such children should prove to have great intel- 
lectual powers, they should not be limited to any special vocation, 
but might pass on to the highest schools and the university. 

No partiality or favoritism should be shown in the examination or 
grading of the scholars in any school, but true merit and excellence, 
without regard to any extraneous circumstances of position, famil}^, 
or wealth of parents, should be the only criterion for the advance- 
ment of scholars to the various grades of schools. Thus the system 
of education would be made to harmonize with the theory upon which 



360 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the government is based, and the scholars would learn the principles 
of justice, morality, equality, liberty, and law as they progressed in 
their studies. 

In all cases of criminal acts by children under fifteen years of age, 
the reformatory measures should be arranged with as little exposure 
or publicity as possible. The present mode of dealing with children 
criminals is simply barbarous a-nd immoral, resulting in dishonor and 
unnecessary expense to the State. All children who may become 
wards of the State should have every protection and advancement 
they may need, and they should be treated in the schools with the 
same regard, kindness, and attention as any other scholars. 

All the sanitary measures and moral instruction recommended in 
this wok should be fully carried out and practised in all the schools 
to be established, or hereafter to be brought within the scope of the 
sj^stem herein proposed, so that the graduate of either of the schools 
will pass into the scenes of active life as fully prepared to meet all its 
trials and vicissitudes as practicable. His certificate of graduation 
would be a letter of credit upon the world of intelligence and practical 
activity^ that must insure him a livelihood and independence if he be 
diligent, prudent, and frugal. 



THE END OF HISTORY. 361 



THE E]N^D OF HISTOEY. 



CHAPTEE I. 

THE THEOCRATICAL TENDENCY 0;F HISTORY. 

I have shown in the opening chapter of this work that history 
began with a theocracy, — the rule of God upon earth, through the 
direct inspiration of men in a liighly developed race, — and in subse- 
quent chapters I have traced out the gradual disappearance of that 
benign form of government, and the substitution in its stead of the 
most diverse kinds of despotisms, democracies, republics, and feudal- 
isms ; all following each other at various intei'vals, until mankind has 
at last arrived at a stage of development when the establishment of 
a true government in the form of a federative republic, securing 
equality of rights, has become possible. In the foregoing parts 
• of the work I have sought to point out the defects to which our 
republican institutions have been exposed, and to suggest their reme- 
dies. But even if all those proposed remedies should be adopted, 
the question would still remain : Is this the end of the history of 
mankind, and shall mankind always remain subject to a government 
of law ? Is there not a higher end, — an end to attain which the 
government of law is merely a means ? These questions have already 
been proposed and answered, to some extent, in Chapter I. of Public 
Education ; but here, at the end of the book, I wish once more to 
call attention to, and to give a perhaps more specific answer to them. 
This answer is, that as human history originated in a primitive theoc- 
racy, so shall it end in a perfected theoci-acy. But it began in a 
direct, unconscious, divine inspiration ; and it shall end in a clearly 
understood knowledge of the Divine will. And the means by which 
this end is ultimately to be attained lies in the universal public edu- 



362 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

cation to which I have just now alluded. Moreover, in that part 
of my work I have spoken of this end only in the terms of the rule 
of the moral law ; which, strictly speaking, is not a theocracy. But 
let us see whether we cannot arrive at, and, indeed, shall not be 
forced to climb to a higher stand-point than that of the moral law. 

The legal relation between men is one of the phenomena of the 
human mind ; the moral relation is another. But supreme over both 
ranks the relation between man and the Deity. And as all phe- 
nomena of the human mind are intimately connected with each other ; 
and considering that religion, as the highest of these manifestations 
of the soul, interpenetrates all human affairs, — whether legal, social, 
scientific, or historical, — it may well be entitled to at least a kind 
of supplementary treatment in a book of political economy. There 
is another reason why it may claim a place even in the very ground- 
work of such a book. This is, that religion, like all other human 
phenomena, has an historical existence apart from its purely internal 
manifestation ; which historical character necessarily brings it in 
constant contact with law and government. In short, religion, apart 
from being inspiration, is also represented in history as a Church, 
to preserve the unity of the inspirations. 

I shall therefore introduce the subject here, at the very close of 
the book, in this its twofold character ; considering, first, the nature 
of religion and its relation to other manifestations of the human 
mind ; and, second, the character of the Church and its relation to the 
State. In this consideration I shall, of course, keep utterl}^ aloof' 
from sectarian views and prejudices, and consider religion simplv in 
its universal character, as one of the inborn phenomena of mind, and 
the Church simply as the organization of any religious body, whether 
that body call itself Christian, Hebrew, Mohammedan, Mormon, or 
Buddhist. Just as religion has in all its forms the same fundamental 
elements, so the Church and priestcraft reveal everywhere the same 
elemental characteristics, chief of which is the desire to rule supreme 
over their fellow-men. There are two essential relations between 
man, as a rational being, and the spirit-world in general. The one we 
have examined all along throughout the book ; it is the relation of 
law, which connects man with his fellow-beings under the form of an 
established government. The other relation connects him with the 
universal fountain of spiritual life, whom men call God. That is the 
relation of religion, and though it also manifests itself under a form 



THE END OF HISTORY. 363 

of government, that government is veiled in natural phenomena not 
directly visible, but appearing through the ages as a divine order of 
natural inspiration. 

In some form or other, mankind has always had both forms, and 
willingl}^ subjected itself to their rule. Even the most barbarous of 
savages have, and have alwa^^s had, a government of law and a gov- 
ernment of religion, and at all times have given the higher rank to 
the latter, and considered its commands the higher law. 

Originally, as I have explained elsewhere, the appearance of most 
of our race was in a nomadic condition. In this primitive state the 
legal relation had barely any chance to manifest itself. Man existed 
onl}^ as an individual, or, at the utmost, as a family member, but not 
as the member of a people, or the citizen of a State organization. He 
had no relation to other men, except such as arose from the purely 
subjective relation of hospitality ; even as to this day this condition 
of things exists amongst the Arabs, the Tartars, the Laplanders, and 
the Esquimaux. But in proportion as this legal relation did not man- 
ifest itself in the consciousness of man, his religious consciousness 
exhibited greater activit}^ and the worship of God was all the more 
intense. It was natural that this worship should at first have shown 
itself more as a worship of nature ; natural that it should, in many 
instances, have taken the sun for the S3'mbol of its Divinity ; and 
natural that, together with the imaging of the Divinity as the sun, or 
Light (Ormuzd), there should have arisen an imaging of an opposite 
power, hostile to the Light, — of Darkness, or the Devil (Ahriman). 
We find this sun-worship not only in the cradle of mankind, the 
Orient, but equally intense amongst the Aztecs of Mexico and the 
Incas of Peru. Nay, we find it ever^^where, except amongst the 
people whose remotest ancestors had spoken face to face with God, 
and delivered their traditions of His immaterial nature from genera- 
tion to generation, — the Hebrews. Indeed, the simple witnessing of 
the phenomenon of the seasons made this sun-worship and the doc- 
trine of two antagonistic principles of light and darkness almost a 
necessity. 

Not only did the grand Orb of Light disappear every evening, and 
overcome the Prince of Darkness again every morning, but what 
seemed most singular was, that at the close of every summer season 
the God of Light seemed to lose his power, and the God of Darkness 
kept gaining every day, till his victory seemed assured. Hence the 



364 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

joy, the immense exultation, when, after the winter solstice, and after 
the sun had seemingly stood still awhile, as if doubtful whether or 
not to surrender, it suddenly advanced again on high, gaining in light 
and strength every day, till in spring-time the Sun-god had recovered 
all his former glory. Hence the universal celebration of that solstice 
at our Christmas time: the day when the Prince of Darkness was 
overcome and the sun shone forth as the redeemer of mankind. 
Every mythology tells this story in its own way ; and even the dead 
granite blocks of the great pyramid at Jeesah and the obelisks pro- 
claim it in their astronomical construction as clearly as the fables of 
Osiris, Dionysos, or Ahriman and Ormuzd. It were well, liowever, 
were we Christians also to remember that this form of religion, Za- 
b£eism, is, like our own religion, essentially monotheistic, — a worship 
of one God, — and that in this form it still lives in Eastern Asia, for 
instance, as it lived among the primitive races of men. 

Even Moses ^ recognizes this planetary worship as thus related to 
the pure monotheism of the Hebrew religion. He says, in prohibit- 
ing the worship of God in any other than a spiritual form : "Take 
heed, therefore, * * * lest thou lift up thine eyes unto Heaven, 
and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the 
hosts of Heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them and serve them, 
which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole 
heaven.'" Meaning, that all nations except the Hebrew nation might 
serve the countless hosts of Heaven, as emblematic of the spiritual 
Father of Heaven. Whereto Father Clemens, of Alexandria, ob- 
serves in his Stromata: "He gave also the sun, moon, and stars 
to the s'ervice of the cultits, which God established for the heathens, 
lest these, becoming wholly godless, should perish altogether. But 
those who, in spite of this concession, shall worship sculptured ini- 
ages, are damned unless they repent." 

But as the nomadic life of man, in the manner in which I have 
indicated in another chapter, changed into that of agricultural and 
cit}^ life, his patriarchal life, with its intimate connection with a uni- 
versal Divine Power, or with nature in the sun-worship, changed also 
in all its aspects, but in none more portentously so than in its religious 
phase. Instead of being the intimate friend and companion of nature, 
man sought only after means how best to subdue nature to his ends. 



1 Deuteroiiom}^, chap, iv: 19. 



THE E:NrD OF HISTORY. 365 

In their city life, men were compelled to establish governments and 
laws ; and from their estabUshment resulted necessarily the organiza- 
tion of States, and the subjection of whatever each State could lay 
hold of ; and the universal God of primitive man became a special 
national God for each particular State. The Jews had their Jehovah, 
as the Greeks their Zeus, the Norsemen their Thor, and the Mexicans 
their Huitzli Putzli. 

Whilst these changes took place in the religious life of the people^ 
their legal relation changed ever more into the form of a pure despot- 
ism ; and partly in consequence of this change, and partly as the 
result of their transformation of the Deity, their God also became an 
angry and despotic God, hating men for their fall from their original 
life and worship, and visiting upon them His wrath and displeasure, 
mostly without discrimination or reason. Every advance in the new 
civilization created by man was a. source of infinite anger to these 
new gods ; as witness the fate of poor Prometheus, who first taught 
man the use of fire for the advancement of the mechanical arts, and 
who was as cruelly punished for his temerity in teaching man the 
wisdom and knowledge of God as were Adam and Eve for tasting the 
fruit of the tree of knowledge. 

Following out this new change of viewing the relation between man 
and God, it was natural that the whole aspect of the existing world 
should change. It was now believed that the world had fallen into 
irretrievable evil, and that man was given over to sin and the devil. 
To appease the God of Anger — the Bel of Babylon, the Moloch of 
the Bible, and the Shiva of India — it was held necessary to make 
sacrifices, and especially human sacrifices. The whole history of 
religion is full of these dreadful manifestations of man's fear of the 
God of Wrath. At the time of Cortez's stay in the capital of Mexico, 
hundreds of human victims were sacrificed each day, whilst the blood- 
drunk priests danced their dervish dances and chanted their devilish 
songs on the steps of the temple. 

But man could not, for any length of time, remain in this belief of 
an angry, unappeasable God, — the thought was too hideous. Thus 
thei'e arose, conjointly with it, the conception of a youthful. God, -^ 
a son in the flesh of the unrevealed God, — who, in the fulness of 
his love for men, sought to procure their forgiveness and immortality 
by his own death for his fellow-brethi'en of the human race. 

With the ancient Egyptians this redeemer was known as Osh'is, 



366 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

the son of their Sun-god ; but their elaboration of his worship and 
plan of redemption stands so unique and peculiar in the history of 
religion, that it is well worth a special examination. 

The ancient Egyptians then had a conception of a Supreme Deity, 
and, moreover, of a Deity manifested in a fourfold way, in contra- 
distinction to the trinity conception of most of the Christians. This 
four-f oldness they represented in this manner : The Supreme Deity is 
mysterious, unknown (Ammon, a name which only the priesthood 
dared to pronounce), but manifests itself to men as spirit (ether), 
matter, time, and space. As time and space, it is infinite, and as 
spirit also ; but as matter, it is necessarily limited, — that is to say, 
the universe is to be conceived as a limited whole, as a globe of con- 
fined dimensions. Now this is philosophical enough, and may be 
considered as expressing the same idea which Fichte states in this 
manner: The pure ego cannot posit (become conscious of) itself 
without positing itself as a divisible ego (a number of intelligences, 
a universe of men, spirits), and at the same time as a divisible non- 
ego (a material world), and thereby positing an infinite space for the 
world of matter and an infinite time for the world of spirit. This is 
the true representation ; and it is strange, that it should have been so 
luminously set forth in the records and traditions of ancient Egypt, 
as may still be read in the adobe libraries of Thebes. They represent 
that there was no creation of the world out of nothing, as taught in 
the Bible, but a gradual evolution, or development. It was a philo- 
sophical view of things, such as would • naturally suggest itself to a 
common-sense mind, looking upon the phenomena of nature with a 
clear eye, and endeavoring to account for their existence and arrange- 
ment. It is, indeed, the mode of regarding the universe, which we 
meet amongst all primitive people, whereas the doctrine of a Divine 
creation of the world out of nothing is of much later date, and of 
purelj'' speculative origin. ^ 

But the Egyptians taught, furthermore, that the life of men was 
infinite ; that as the souls of men had existed from the beginning, so 
would they continue to live without end. Th^s doctrine, however, 
gave I'ise in their creed to what seems to us of the present day one of 
the strangest beliefs ever entertained by mankind. I allude to the 



1 See History of Occidental Philosophy. By Dr. Edward Roeth. Second 
Edition. Mannheim, 1862. 



THE END OF HISTORY. 367 

transmigration of souls. Their idea was, that the spirits of men were 
originally gods, or angels, who, through rebellion, had made them- 
selves subject to punishment, and were consequently put into human 
bodies. This life was thus a penitence to be worked out, a state 
wherein those souls were to purify themselves and work out their 
salvation. Those men who succeeded in effecting this purification 
were supposed to go to Heaven and rejoin the gods. Those, on the 
other hand, who did not succeed were supposed to become reincoi'- 
porated in other bodies, — human or animal, — until they had finally 
become purified and fitted for immortality. The redeemer for these 
fallen ones was Osiris, son of the Sun-god, Ra, who every evening, 
with sundown, was represented as going down to Hades, and by his 
grace lifting them up in the morning to endless life, in the blessed 
regions of the Sun-god's dwelhng-place. 

That I have not exaggerated the religious culture of the ancient 
Egyptians, will appear from the following extracts from the so-called 
"Holy Legend" (cs^o? h)yoq), which Pythagoras brought, with all 
his other acquirements, from Thebes to Greece, and made the foun- 
dation of his religious teachings to those of his scholars who — after 
many years of probation, of mathematical, musical, astronomical, 
medical, legal, and other studies, and a carefully watched, pure mode 
of living, under prescribed rules — were at last deemed worthy to be 
initiated into the deepest, the most religious doctrines of his lore. 

In regard to the physical lore that Pythagoras brought from 
Egypt, I need simply refer to the science of music, which he taught 
the Greeks ; the Pythagorean problem, which embraces the whole of 
Euclid ; and the dogmas of the rotundity of the earth, its revolution 
around the sun, and rotation on its own axis ; all of which sciences he 
brought from Egypt to Greece, as is well substantiated, not only by 
second-hand Greek accounts and original Egyptian hieroglyphics, but 
also by the great pyramid of Jeesah, that arises in the deserts of 
Northern Africa. Naturally enough, we always speak of the discov- 
ery, that the earth should be regarded as coursing around the sun, 
as a modern one of the Copernican system; but Copernicus lived 
some fifteen hundred years after Christ, and Pythagoras some seven 
hundred years before Christ, and the great pyramid of Eg3q3t, from 
which country Pythagoras brought his lore, and which teaches that 
lore in its giant granite blocks, was erected more than four thousand 
years ago. And there is no historical difficulty in tracing the spread 



368 LIBERTY AND LAW 

of this astronomical lore from the priests of Thebes to Pythagoras of 
Greece, and from Pythagoras to Hipparchus. Nay, the so-called 
Copernican system flourished in Europe several hundred j'^ears after 
Christ. Copernicus received the doctrine of Pythagoras, and thereby 
paved the way for our modern science of astronomy. 

So far as the religious lore which Pythagoras brought from Egypt 
is concerned, the "Holy Legend" must speak for itself. It has, 
it is true, been traditionally ascribed to a mythical Orpheus ; but 
ancient historical records as well as the text itself — in the purest 
Greek — fix Pythagoras as its author, and manifold testimony of 
other kinds leave no doubt that it is a mere translation from the 
Bible of ancient Egypt, as taught to Pythagoras by the priests of 
Thebes. 

" Oh, Thou ruler of ocean and land, of ether and abyss. Thou 
who causest the firm Olympus to rock to and fro at thy thunder. 
Thou, before whom the spirits shudder, and e'en Th}^ gods trem- 
ble ; whom e'en the fates obey, they to all other things unimpres- 
sible. Oh, Thou eternal father of mother nature, to whose will 
all things bend ; who covers the heavens with clouds ; before whose 
lightning the ether divides. Thine is the order of the stars ; they 
course after Thy unchangeable command. Thine is young spring, 
aglow with purple flowers. Thine the storm of the winter, which 
wafts the snowdrifts onward. Thine the Bacchic- jubilating autumn, 
which distributes fruits. Eternally immortal Being, nameless to all 
but immortals, come to us. * * * But do thou, O mortal, 
always changingly inclined, no longer hesitate, but retracing thy 
steps, make the Divinity inclined to thee! 

"First, above all, honor the immortal gods (meaning, in 
Christian speech, the highest angels), as custom has prescribed. 
I hold high in esteem the noble heroes of old, and also show 
the usual devotions to the demons under the earth. Next, honor 
thy parents and thy nearest relations. Of other men choose as a 
friend some one who is prominent by reason of his virtues ; and 
do rrot turn away from him by reason of small foibles. Habituate 
thyself to control above all thy stomach ; next sleep and profligacy, 
and then anger. Thou shalt commit no immoralities with others, nor 
by thj'self, for it best becometh thee to nourish shame before tlwself. 
Further, learn to practice justice in works and words, and in no 
thing in life to act irrationally ; but consider, that death alone is sure 



THE END OF HISTORY. 369" 

for US all ; whereas earth's goods are now won and now lost. Hence, 
whatsoever soi'rows Heaven's fate sends to mortals, bear thy share 
without niunnnring. Try to heal the sores as well as thou canst, and 
try to believe that fate has. after all not assigned too much suffering 
to the meritorious. * * * B^t, above all, let nobody ever per- 
suade thee by word or action to do or say what thou recognizes t not 
thyself as the best. Before acting reflect, lest thy act should turn 
out foolishly; and do only that of which thou wilt not thereafter 
repent. * * * 

" Never let sleep sink upon th}?^ tender eyes before thou hast exam- 
ined every act of the day in three ways: What did I? Where did I 
wrong? Did I leave no duty undone? Hast thou done wrong, then 
tremble ! But if thou hast done good, rejoice ! When thou hast 
attained this, then the connection between the immortal gods and 
mortal men will become clear to thee, and how it penetrates and gov- 
erns everything; but also how nature remains in a general way 
always the same. In this way thou wilt hope for nothing impossible, 
and be surprised by nothing, and wilt learn that men also suffer from 
self-caused evils. * * * Courage, then, since the mortals are of 
divine origin, and their consecrated nature teaches them everything. 
If this was not withheld from thee, thou also shalt succeed as I tell 
thee, to redeem thy soul from these sufferings and heal its wounds. 
Only avoid the first steps of evil, and strictly watching thyself, purify 
th}' soul for its redemption. Reflect upon everything closely, and 
choose reason as thy highest and supreme guide. Then, when leaving 
the I ody, thou mountest to the free ether; and thou shalt be immor- 
tal, a blessed spirit and no man more." 

It has been wrongly supposed that the ancient Egyptians wor- 
shipped animals, because in their hieroglyphs animals are made, in 
conjunction with other signs, to represent gods. The explanation of 
this phenomenon is very simple. Those animals were used for hiero- 
glyphical writings, as indicating by the first letter of their vulgar 
name the fii'st letter of the word that was to stand for the special 
deity to be named. For instance: the picture of a bird whose 
Egyptian name begins with an N, stands for the letter N. In the 
same way the sphynx represents, in the shape of the lion-body (which 
lion signifies the sun, Osiris's dwelling-place) with the human head 
attached to it, this same Osiris as a living man and intelligence. 
And as Osiris was the redeemer of the Egyptians, they put up 

24 



370 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

sphynxes in commemoration of bim, just as we put up crucifixes, 
and in the same proportionate number. And tbis is the whole riddle 
of the sphynx. 

Much in the same manner as the Egyptian legend of Osiris is 
the more Oriental story of Bel, the Babylonian god, who bad by 
his wife Beltis, — called by Herodotus, Mylitta, — and who is identi- 
cal with the Greek Urania and Astarte, the wife of Uranos and the 
Queen of Heaven, a son named Duozie, who, on his part, is identical 
"with Adonis, and who also suffered death and descended into Hell, or 
Hades, on every autumnal equinox, amidst the greatest sorrowing and 
despair of the people ; and from which he arose on the eighth day, 
vrben the joy of the people became as tumultuous as their grief had 
been before harrowing. 

So also in Greece, we have the son of god, — of Zeus, — Dionysos, 
whose mother, Persephone, is identical with Astarte or Kybeles. He, 
too, suffered for the sake of appeasing his father's wrath, died and 
was buried in Delphos, where, every year, at the shortest day, the 
Maenads celebrated his glory by the wildest excesses. AH shame and 
modesty were thrown aside. Rattling their tyrsos-staffs and shouting 
Evohoe ! ringing their cymbals, blowing their horns, and filling the air 
with their shrill pipes, they indulged in the most drunken and obscene 
orgies to show their love for the shamefully mui'dered man-god, whom 
the Titans had literally torn to pieces. Dionysos also, like Osiris, 
descended to Hades, where, together with his mother, they also work 
the redemption of the souls of the dead, and thus make death simply 
a process of purification for a new and better life. This story of 
Dionysos and Persephone was the one celebrated by the Greeks in 
their minor famous " mysteries." 

The greater mysteries of Eleusis, however, took up the sequence 
of this story ; for the son of god arose again from death, and, having 
conquered death for himself, descended again to Hell to liberate Per- 
sephone ; and it is this redemption which was represented at the great 
Eleusinian mysteries. Hence the exceptional reverence which the 
Greeks entertained for those festivals. "Thrice happy," says Soph- 
ocles, " are they who have seen these mysteries before they descend 
to Hades! for they alone have life there; others, simply misery ! " 
" Happy," says Homer, "who has beheld them of earthly mortals! 
But he who never participated in them, — nothing can be compared 
to his lot when he is dead, down there in the dismal darkness!" 



THE END OF HISTORY. 371 

All of this goes to show, "what I have suggested before, that mono- 
theism was the real religion of the primitive people, even after they 
had changed their conception of a friendly, companionable God for 
one of a God of wrath, and that the onlj' consequence of this change 
was the general feeling of the wickedness of the world, the sinfulness 
of man, and the necessity of a redemption through the self-sacrifice, 
unto boundless suffering, endless persecution, and physical death, of 
a human incarnation of the Deit3\ 

It will be noticed, as a curious feature in the history of the devel- 
opment of religion, that whereas the otherwise most perfect, spiritual, 
and directly inspired religion of the Hebrews, with its unsullied 
monotheism and implacable hatred of even all material representa- 
tions of the Deity ("thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven 
image," etc.), did not busy itself about immortality, held no doc- 
trine on the subject, — nay, even denied an immortal life, in one of 
its chief and most popular sects, the Sadducees. The so-called Pagan 
religions held the faith in God inseparable from faith in immortalitv. 
Their god, crudely conceived and materially imaged as he was, existed 
to them only as a redeemer from sin and dispenser of immortal life 
in a Heaven beyond ; the Paradise of the Jew was here on earth, even 
in the land of Canaan, and the only redeemer to whom he looked 
forward was a Messiah, — that is, a real king, who should redeem. 
Canaan from foreign subjection. This will explain why a modern 
German philosopher (Dr. Hugo Delff) of great repute, and neverthe- 
less — strange to say, in these our days — of rather mystical ten- 
dency, should deny to the Jews almost the possibility of becoming 
Christians ; an assertion, however, which history amply proves to be 
true. I quote from one of his latest works : — 

"The whole process, the whole life-work of mankind, has for its 
object to overcome death. But this object is morally conditioned. 
Or, rather, it results as a consequence of a higher internal develop- 
ment of life. The more man develops himself within himself humanly, 
spiritually, and the more he feels himself in his inmost spiritual being, 
as therein distinguished from and elevated above nature and nature's 
laws, the more peculiarly he also becomes conscious of having over- 
come death. This is the life-conflict of mankind, the conflict between 
spirit and nature, — that is, of nature as it is in itself, — of wild 
nature ; and the last enem}'' of mankind is death, the end of nature. 
Nature begins in order to end, and ends in order to begin ; creating 



372 LIBEETY AND LAW. 

and destroying unite in nature. Man, comprehending himself within 
himself in a higher being, transcends the beginning as well as the 
ending of nature ; he has overcome the world and death. This is the 
best proof of immortality — the Being, the Eternal Life — which man 
lives in himself ; and there is no other proof than this. To believe in 
a Heaven, and yet ' to hold it a beautiful fairy tale,' is all the same. 
Misei'able men ! Live Heaven, and you will remain in Heaven, and 
nobody will expel you from it. "What is all this vanity about, this 
coquetr}^ to look with heroic resignation into the face of death, — of 
annihilation? Aye, if you feel nothing, it may well be that in such- 
nothingness even the nothing shall not appear to you any longer 
wondrous. But you forget the will. Who can extinguish the fire 
of the will? It must burn, I apprehend, unto all eternity. But im- 
mortality, true immortality, eternal life, is a need of the soul, and i& 
the deed which it does with and in God. 

'•'■Hellenism and Christianity are not opposites, but Judaism and 
Christianity are opposites, absolutely irreconcilable and excluding each 
other. Judea, the dead remnant of which is Judaism, was merely the 
hull wherein which Christianity secretly prepared itself, until it burst 
this hull and entered in full clearness into the world. Hellenism can- 
not perish so long as the world stands, and Christianity presupposes- 
Hellenism as well as absorbs it, in order to impregnate it. The true^ 
historically proven road to Christianity does not pass through Judea, 
but through Hellenism. Judea is a bursted hull, — ajneans of de- 
velopment which has now become superfluous and without impor- 
tance. The Jews do not know what they worship. Hellenism is the 
whole, full content and encirclement of the spiritual powers and 
effects of life, so far as they are included and designed in the 
natural, — that is, inborn consciousness. These had to be developed 
and interpreted beforehand ; and Christianity enters to replenish 
them, — to interpret their true essence, objects, and motives. Hel- 
lenism interprets spirit in a natural form and direction, but Chris- 
tianity interprets the spirit in itself, — the subject of the spirit, which 
has thrown its glow and glimmer from the beginning into the natural 
and nature-bound consciousness of mankind, and still so thi'ows it. 
Light shines in darkness, but darkness comprehends it not, — that is, 
it compi'ehends only the glow, and that it did very well comprehend 
and interpret wonderfull}^ ; but not itself. — not the light itself." 

While thus the Hebrews had a pure God-worship, — at least theo- 



THE END OF HISTORY. 373 

retically, — but lacked the conception of immortality, and while the 
Pagans, though having the conception of immortality, lacked that of 
a pure God, there arose among the Jews a religion which united both 
conceptions, not only theoretically, but also historically, in the per- 
son of Jesus Christ, who, by effecting this union, was therefore en- 
abled to become the Redeemer of the whole world, Jews and Pagans. 
To the Greeks and Romans there seemed nothing strange in the doc- 
trine of vicarious atonement, upon which the Christian religion rests 
as its corner-stone, though to the Jews it seemed foolishness ; for 
the Romans and the Greeks had had the same doctrine, even in a 
crude way, preached to them in the Eleusinian mysteries and the 
myths of Osiris and Dionj'sos. Nay, even the bodily resurrection of 
Christ and his bodily ascension to Heaven had for them nothing 
incredible or marvellous in it. And what, indeed, is there in that 
^11-important doctrine of vicarious atonement which should so arouse 
the ire of men who consider it a proof of their intellectual superi- 
•orit}' that they should oppose the Christian form of religion ? Is not 
in some way every great or good man, who works for the advance- 
ment of his kind and their liberation from the thraldom of sin, a re- 
deemer of his kind? And does not he atone for his kind by the 
suffering he has to endure in the course of his labors, by the agony 
which weighs upon him who has arrived at the consciousness of the 
sinfulness of his kind, and which increases in proportion as the con- 
sciousness of that sinfulness increases ? Whether we will or not, we 
do vicariously atone daily for the transgressions of our race, and it is 
only narrow-minded ignorance of the meaning of this doctrine that 
•can scoff at it. Through all great and good men the Deity reveals 
Himself more or less to the fallen race, that has grown up in darkness 
to look upon Him as an enem^^ ; through all of them it strives more 
or less to effect reconciliation between Himself and man, but only in 
Christ did the glory of God shine forth in all its fulness, and man 
was taught not only to walk hand-in-hand, as it w6re, with God 
through the world, but also with and through Him with evei'y one of 
Ms believing fellow-beings. It was only through Christ that, in his 
beautiful anthromorphization, God became a "Father/' and all be- 
lieving mankind brothers and sisters. 

This, the other fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion, is 
usually called the revelation of God through Christ. Like the doc- 
trine of atonement, it also has met with violent opposition and scoffing, 



374 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

chiefly from a misapprehension of the word. The natural scientist 
is -wilUng enough to speak of a one persistent material force revealing 
itself in an infinite multitude of correlated forces ; but, with perverse 
self-contradiction, will not even lend an ear to the revelation of a one 
spiritual force or power (God) in an infinite multitude of correlated 
self-conscious or spiritual forces (men), that live, move, and have 
their being in the persistent One alone, and through His self-sacrifice 
in manifesting Himself in all of them, — even as the one force sacri- 
fices itself in becoming a manifold at the same time, — making them 
immortal in and through Him. To carry the analogy still further: 
The one persistent force of the natural scientist reveals itself in the 
least breath of air that moves the tiniest leaf, as well as in the electric 
currents that shake the bowels of the earth and cause the sun itself 
to throw its spots from one part of its surface to another. But how 
much clearer does the conception of a magnetic and of an electric 
force reveal the one persistent force than does the force of the 
zephyr! Even so the lowest human self-consciousness reveals the 
one spiritual life ; but in a far clearer light do we recognize it in men 
like Moses, St, John, or, let us sa}^ Thomas a Kempis, or Kant. 
Still further : the zephyr force may change into heat force, and again 
into magnetic force, yet will it in all these transitions remain one 
with the universal persistent force, and at the same time retain its 
individual zephyr nature ; for nothing that ever has been can ever 
completely divest itself of its past, but must reveal that past to close 
examination. The whole science of geology rests on this principle. 
So may the lowest spiritual being rise from its incomplete state unto 
higher and higher regions of development, and reveal ever more and 
more the supreme light of the One Spiritual Life. Yet in all its transi- 
tions of development it will remain one with God, and at the same 
time retain its individual consciousness. This is the true immortalit}'', 
and the true revelation of God ; an everlasting inspiration of man by 
the One Spiritual Life, wherein all men are centred ; and which to 
awaken in them and through them to manifest, in all its elements 
of goodness, beauty, and wisdom, is the .purpose of the system 
of government which I have proposed in this book. For that pur- 
pose is, as I have stated in the fundamental principles: '•'•Affirma- 
tively: To provide for the harmonious, temperate, fit, and best use 
attainable of all the faculties of mind and body of eacli person, sO' 
that each one may have, under the law, the possibility of attaining, 



THE END OF HISTORY. 375 

without any of the hindevances of ignorance, impurity, fraud, or 
tyranny, the greatest good, happiness, wisdom, inspiration, beaut.y, 
love, and perfection of which his faculties and organization are 
capable : first, for himself ; second, for his family ; and, third, for 
the society or State in which he lives. Negatively ; To prohibit each 
person from intemperate, inharmonious, reckless, hurtful, or unfit 
abuse or use of either or any of the faculties of his mind or body." 

All great thinkers of the world are agreed on this conception of 
revelation or inspiration in religion as its supreme element. When the 
uncultured Greek conceived the Deity as a Nemesis, — ?'.e., a purely 
destructive power, — men like Plato and Aristotle replied, that God 
was not envious^ — that is, not desirous of concealing His glory from 
mankind. " It lies essentially within the conception of true religion," 
says Hegel, " that is, of that religion whereof the content is the ab- 
solute spirit ; that it should be revealed, and revealed by God. For 
since knowledge, or the principle which constitutes substance, — 
spirit, — is self-determining, as the infinite form which exists for 
itself, it is necessarily a manifesting. Spirit is spirit only in so far 
as it is spirit for spirit, and in absolute rehgion it is the absolute 
spirit which manifests, no longer merely its abstract moments, but 
itself." 

In a still higher form this revelation of God in man and through 
man, this completeness of Divine inspiration, which makes man a real 
"child of God," as Christ expresses it, finds its utterance in the 
Catholic mystics, such as Thomas a Kempis or Angelus Silesius 
(Johann Scheffler), who says: — 

"I am as great as God; as I, so smaU is He ; 
He cannot over me, I not below Him be." 

" I am as rich as God ; there can no dust-speck be, 
Which I hold not with Him in common property." 

" God is my soul, my flesh, my sinews, and my blood : 
How, then, should I not noAV throughout be God-imbued?" 

From this constant revelation of God, it also appears, that religion 
is not arrogant, but merely logically consequent, when it says that we 
can know God. "The cognition of God," says Hegel, elsewhere, 
"is not above reason, for reason is onlj^ God's image and reflection, 
and is essentially the knowledge of the absolute." 

It has of late j'^ears become fashionable to deprecate drawing any 



376 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

distinction between the Christian religion and other forms of religion. 
I have already shown its distinction from the Jewish religion, in that 
it combines the conception of immortality with that of one God, and 
of a revelation of that one God, — preeminently in Christ, but through 
Him also in all men, — which revelation, or inspiration, secures to 
man absolute freedom. For when God, who is love in this Christian 
revelation, enters man, and reveals Himself through man, by this 
same love, man is no longer determined by any external, foreign 
being, but lives in absolute liberty and beatitude. How can the 
man who has risen into and become one with the Godhead, though 
still retaining in full his individual identity, be other than free? How 
can he feel the One Spiritual Life, of which he is an integral part, as a 
predestinating power, or a rude rule of fatalism ? He nowhere comes 
in contact with a supreme power alien to him, choosing or guiding 
his destiny, so as to deprive him of his freedom ; for him there is 
no external Providence, since that Providence lives in and through 
himself. The Christian religion unites, therefore, not merely two 
conceptions, but the three grand ideas which for all ages have been 
held to be the highest problems of philosophy : God, Freedom, and 
Immortality. In the Christian religion these three conceptions, 
which, as Kant has so beautifully demonstrated, could neA'^er have 
been proved by theoretical reason alone, have received factical exist- 
ence and proof. In the Christian religion God is a fact, immortality 
is a fact, and freedom is a fact ; and higher proof cannot be given. 
And this elevates Christianity, as I have said, above all other relig- 
ions, and constitutes it the absolute religion. 

As for the Oriental religions, of which those modern deprecators 
of Christianity so love to speak, they are even below the religions of 
the Greeks and Egyptians; just as their symbolic representations 
of religion are infinitely below those of Greece and those of Egypt. 

What, for instance, is the essence of the religion of the ancient 
Persians, the religion of Zoroaster? The vei'y highest praise that 
can be given to the Zend-Avesta, the Holy Book of the Parsees, is, 
that it inculcates truthfulness, purity in works, words, and thoughts, 
charity and piety. Their worship of light, as the representation of 
God, is certainly a higher conception than is involved in the worship 
of a wooden or stone image ; but the whole religion is purely a code 
of morals, and never rises above a moral life to a divine life in and 
with God. 



THE END OF HISTORY. 377 

The Brahmin religion finds its highest expression in the Bhagavat- 
Gita. The main principle here is an escape from actual life into the 
absolute by a sort of ecstac}'-, into a state of complete indifference or 
non-identity (^yoga). The object of the Brahmin religion is to pro- 
duce a condition wherein man feels neither hatred nor love, but is 
passivel}'^ emotionless. He is to become "free of fear, desire, and 
anger, without hope or aspirations, indifferent in good or bad for- 
tune ; " he is "to gather in his senses from the sensuous, as the 
turtle gathers in his head and feet," and "to hold his heart so tight 
that he even ceases to think." The idea of a perfect man in the 
Brahmin religion is that of one " who is the same towards friend and 
enemy, strangers and relatives, bad and good." How is it possible 
that this cold neutrality of a blase race of men could ever have been 
put into comparison with the incessantly active and sympathetic love 
which Christianity insists that men must cultivate, even as the Father 
in Heaven manifests Himself for evermore in active graciousness and 
love ? 

As this matter has grown of importance, now that we have every 
day told to us by men of professed erudition, and whose names 
impress the unlearned multitude, how superior the Oriental forms of 
religion are to that of Christianity, I ma}?- be pardoned for quoting 
here, as an offset, so to say, Hegel's characteristic of the Brahmin 
rehgion. He saj^s : — 

" Notwithstanding the fecundity, the brilliancy, and the grandeur 
of their conceptions, the Hindoos have never possessed a clear sense 
of persons and events, — the true historic sense. In this constant 
amalgamation of the absolute and the finite, the complete absence of 
positive spirit and of reason cannot fail to be remarked. Thought 
permits itself to wander amidst chimeras the most extravagant and 
the most monstrous which the imagination can possibly produce. 
Thus : First, The conception of Brahma is the abstract idea of Being, 
without life or reality, deprived of real form and of personality. 
Second, From this idealism, pushed to the extreme, the intelligence 
precipitates itself into the most unbridled naturalism. Third, It 
deifies objects of nature, — animals." Divinity "appears under the 
form of an idiot man, deified because he belongs to a certain caste. 
Each individual, because he is born in this caste, represents Brahma 
in person. The union of man with God is reduced to the level of 
a simple material fact. Whence, also, the role which the law of the 



378 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

generation of beings plays in this religion, which gives place to the 
most obscene representations. It would be easy to render apparent 
the contradictions which swarm in this religion, as well as the confu- 
sion which reigns throughout this mythology. A parallel between the 
Hindoo and the Christian trinities will show none the less the extreme 
difference. The three persons of the former are not persons ; each 
of them is an abstraction with respect to the others. Whence it fol- 
lows, that if this trinity has some analogy with the Christian, it is 
inferior to it, and we should guard ourselves from thinking to recog- 
nize it in the Christian dogma. 

"The part which corresponds to Greek polytheism demonstrates 
equally its inferiority. Here we must remark the confusion of those 
numberless theogonies and cosmogonies which contradict and destroy 
one another, and wherein the idea of natural — not spiritual — gener- 
ation distinctly dominates. Obscenity is often pushed to the last 
extreme. In the Greek fables, however, and in the Theogony of 
Hesiod in particular, we often catch a glimpse of the moral sense. 
Everything is clearer and more explicit, more strongly united, and 
we do not remain shut up in the circle of the divinities of nature. 

"In denying to Hindoo art the idea of true beauty and of genuine 
sublimity, we must not forget that it offers us, chiefly in poetry, 
scenes from human life, full of attraction and sweetness, many grace- 
ful images and tender sentiments, most brilliant descriptions of 
nature, charming traits of childlike simplicity and naive innocence 
in love ; to which, at the same time, is occasionally added much that 
is grand and noble. 

"But as for that which concerns the fundamental conceptions in 
their totality, the spiritual cannot disengage itself from the sensuous. 
Side by side with the most elevated situations we come upon the most 
insipid triviality, — a complete absence of precision and proportion. 
The sublime is only the measureless ; and, respecting what holds 
good at the basis of the myth, imagination, seized by a dizziness and 
incapable of mastering the flight of thought, wanders into the fantas- 
tic, or only produces enigmas, that have no meaning for reason." 

As for Buddhism, finally, which is held up as the model reUgion of 
the Orient, if not of the whole world, it is even more hlase, if possible, 
than Brahminism ; as is natural, seeing that it is the religion of a man 
(the son of an elephant) who, after having tasted all the dehghts of 
life (some eighty-four thousand wives, par exam'ple), and having 



TPIE END OF HISTORY. 379 

been satiated to disgust therewith, sought to obtain peace of soul by 
means of meditation and an ascetic life ; and sought this peace, not 
in love-activity and self-sacrifice for others, as the Christian seeks to 
obtain his beatitude, but in an utter annihilation of soul-life. This 
condition of the soul is called bj'^ the Buddhists nirvana; and being a 
Hindoo word which nobody seems to be able to interpret correctly, 
has wonderfully impressed those who are shocked at the lucid, un- 
mistakable doctrine of immortality in the Christian religion, and has 
caused them to write books full of nonsense in praise of Buddhism. 

According to Sir Chas. Colebrooke, — probably the best authority on 
the subject, — nirvana, when used as an adjective, signifies expired, 
or extinguished, — as, for instance, an expired or extinguished fire, 
or a candle that ceases to burn. Again, it signifies dead, — as when 
applied to a saint who has left this world for a better one. It is derived 
from va, to blow (as the wind blows), and the preposition mr, which is 
a negation ; hence the whole word, nirvana, signifies unmoA^ed by the 
wind. (The Bhagavat-Gita speaks of the same condition as a " wind- 
less place." But when the word is used as a substantive, and in a 
philosophical sense, it signifies a complete apathy. ) 

If Sir Charles is right, therefore, all those who have interpreted 
nirvana as signifying a state of complete annihilation have been 
sorely mistaken ; and this includes by far the greater proportion of 
Buddha-worshippei's amongst our own people of the Occident. Even 
Schopenhauer adopted this erroneous view, probably because it suited 
him to represent his system of pessimism as the doctrine of "the 
largest religious sect in the world." 

This, however, is also a preposterously exaggerated statement, 
based on the assumption that all of China has adopted the Buddha 
religion. Now, it is well known that there is no State religion in 
China, all sects being tolerated. The literary class, and a consider- 
able portion of the people, — the less ignorant, — hold to the doc- 
trines of Confucius, though little heeding them. Followers of Laoutze 
are still to be found amongst the ruder tribes. But the greater num- 
ber of the Chinese are quite indifferent to religion ; the idea of a 
divinity being, indeed, something for which the Chinese mind has no 
affiliation. Buddhism, finally, though it undoubtedly is still spread 
over a considerable portion of China, is in a state of gradual decay, 
and has dwindled down to a mere image-worship, purchase and sale 
of idols, charms, amulets, rosaries, etc. The Chinese, indeed, are 



380 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

essentiaHy prosaic, and hence incapable of seizing whatever of spir- 
itual significance there is in Buddhism ; they are, moreover, preemi- 
nently vicious, and hence incapable of carrying out the purely moral 
precepts of Confucius. 

Max Mueller also says, in speaking of nirvana: It certainly sig- 
nifies to expire, but also occurs in Brahminic writings as the synonym 
of mokscha, nervritti, etc., terms that signify the highest stage of 
spiritual freedom and beatitude, but do not signify annihilation. 

Another authority, Koeppen, says: '■'■Nirvana is the place where 
we gain salvation from the misery of birth ! ' ' 

The holy books of the Buddhist have sayings like these : — 
" If a man can bear all things he has attained nirvana.^' 
" He who conquers passion and hatred enters nirvana." 
"The wise man, who harms no one and subjugates his body, 
attains nirva7ia, and suffers no longer when he has attained it." 

This, then, is really the end and aim of the two chief forms of 
Oriental religions : to attain a state of the mind wherein we are 
utterly indifferent to all external occurrences and things, looking with 
the same plain unconcern on vice and virtue, good and bad, sunshine 
and darkness ; in short, to reach the beau ideal of the modern 
man of the period, who seeks to attain this blessed state by stupef}^- 
ing himself in the narcotic poison of every vice he can absorb into 
his physical nature. 

And we are gravely told, that these forms of religion are of equal 
worth, if not superior to the religion of Jesus Christ, and should 
receive the same, if not a higher consideration than that religion, in 
the selections made for the "readers " of our public schools. To me 
it seems that, even from the formal stand-point of the law-giver, the 
bringing up of children in forms of faitli like that of the ■yoga and 
■nirvana, or, in otlier words, that the teaching them that the highest 
aim of mankind is to suppress all activit}^ of body and mind, and to 
become a loafer, pure and simple, — a lazzaroni, a public beggar, 
etc., — ought not to be tolerated by any form of government that 
means to perpetuate itself ; for those forms of faith annihilate all 
government and render impossible the enforcement of law. 

Of all the Oriental forms of religion, only the sayings of Confucius 
are worth notice ; and even they read very coarsely. If an old adage, 
that the culture of women in a State indexes the culture of the whole 
population, is true, then the civilization of Cliina is the lowest ever 



THE END OF HISTORY. 381 

known on earth ; for the Chinese woman is taught at her birth that 
she is an inferior creature ; and a large proportion of the unliappy 
creatures are smothered, exposed for possible adoption, or sold in 
their infancy. Those who survive are brought up clumsily shaped, 
from bottom of sole to top of head. Finally, the great boast which our 
Occidental students of Oriental culture preach forth these da^^s, that 
the Chinese have universal public education and civil-service, reform, 
is utterly wrong. So far as women are concerned, it is altogether 
wrong. The Chinese women, if in the lower rank, are rigorously 
prohibited from cultivating their minds, excluded from all benefits 
of public education, and, with very rare exceptions, do not even know 
what civil service is. But even so far as the men are concerned, the 
poor classes — that is, the vast majority of the people — grow up in 
utter ignorance, and only a special class cultivates letters. 

The only religion showing the true characteristics of faith, hope, 
and charity is the Christian religion. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE DANGEES OF A PRIESTCRAFT THEOCRACY. 

Having thus arrived at a knowledge of the nature of religion, I 
shall now proceed to the consideration of its historical existence as a 
Church. There was naturally no need or possibility of a Church 
organization while men led simply the nomadic life which I have 
described, nor was there any necessity for a special institution of 
priests, as intermediaries between man and God, while man remained 
in direct personal communication with God. It was only with the 
rise of cities that temples were built ; and it was not until the need of 
labor and the desire for gain so engaged men's minds, that their direct 
inspiration through God became clogged, and required an external 
force for its reopening. This external force was supplied by the 
priests through exhortations, and such other solemn ceremonies as 
seemed to them calculated to arouse the dormant religious sentiments 
of the masses. Naturally this priestly power grew in proportion to 
the growth of ignorance, and consequent alienation from God, amongst 
the common people, until, in the course of time, the priesthood came 



382 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

to be looked upon as a class of men altogether distinct from the mass 
of ordinary human beings, — a higher order of creatures, — through 
whom alone the common mortal could hold communion with God, 
learn His commandments, and obtain His forgiveness. 

Of all the passions that arise in the human soul, love of power is 
the most demoniac, seeing that its sole object is the subjugation of 
the free will of others. The essence of man is freedom ; and it is the 
destruction of this freedom, this supreme quality of rational beings, 
which the love of power contemplates. In one way this passion had 
made itself manifest in an early period of the history of our race, as 
I have shown, b}^ the assumption of rule on the part of some strong- 
willed men, and the consequent establishment of despotic govern- 
ments. And now there arose by the side of these secular rulers a 
vast number of ecclesiastical rulers, animated by the same passion, — 
of subjugating the free will of others, — and furthered, moreover, in 
this design by the people themselves, who were but too ready to 
accept the mediation of the priests between their conscience and God, 
instead of woi'king out that mediation for themselves by self-sacnfice, 
repentance, and exertion. This inertia on the part of the masses, 
and consequent readiness to submit to priest-rule, — as they had 
already submitted to the rule of tyrants, and as in the course of 
time they submitted, with the same passive readiness, to the rule of 
the money-lords, — was naturally stronger in proportion to their 
ignorance and stupidity. 

Hence Kant says very aptlj^, in his " Critic of Pure Religion " : — 

"The worship of powerful invisible beings, which was forced from 
man by a natural fear, founded on the consciousness of his impo- 
tency, did not begin at once with the beginning of religion, but arose 
in the shape of an idol-service, which, after having obtained a certain 
public legal form, became a temple-service, and which ultimately be- 
came a cJmrch-service only after the moral culture of man had been 
united with that legal form." 

The same general view of the relation between church-service and 
religion is expressed in a more philosophical form by Professor Rosen- 
kranz, in his commentary on Hegel's Encyclopsedia, as follows: — 

"Religion realizes its conception partly through theoretical and 
partly through practical authority. In regard to the former, it be- 
comes a belief in the form in which a religion assumes to represent 
the idea of God to our consciousness. The cultus causes the thinking 



THE END OF HISTORY. 383 

of man to sink down into, and be absorbed in the thought of God. 
It annuls itself, thinking with all the broadness of its finite conditions, 
in thus making present unto itself the Absolute, Eternal, in and 
through Himself, as a self-existing Being. This is the point. The 
formal accreditations which faith put forward to attest its truth, such 
as external authorit}', stories of miracles, etc., are really of no im- 
portance. A miracle has no religious significance, and in religion we 
have to deal only with matters of religion. In a practical respect, 
however, the cuUus assumes various forms, the central point of which 
is the sacrifice. In the religion of the spirit this changes into a sacri- 
fice of the heart, — that is, of the natural egotism of our feelings." 

But to express in the clearest and most thorough manner the rela- 
tion of the cultus, as church-service, to religion pure and simple, and 
to arrive in the shortest way at the point where Church and State 
come into conflict, let me once more quote from Kant's great work, 
of all his four Critics perhaps the foremost in popular appreciation. 
It is the more interesting when we remember that this Critic — the 
Critic of Pure Religion — was the work which brought Kant, at the 
time of its first publication, in conflict with the Prussian government ; 
the Prussian clergy having induced the pietistic King Frederick III. 
to suppress the work. Connecting with the above quotation, Kant 
proceeds : — 

" To divert the invisible power which rules the fate of men, to their 
own advantage, is the object which all religious people have in view ; 
and they differ only in regard to the means, which to employ. If 
they look upon that power as a rational Being, and hence ascribe to it 
a will, which is to decide their fate, then their desire can be only 
directed towards the selection of the manner in which they can please 
that Being by their actions. If they think that it is a moral Being, 
they can readily convince themselves, through their own reason, that 
the condition under which to acquire its approval must be a moral, 
pure mode of living, and especially a pure heart, as the subjective 
principle of a pure life. But perhaps the highest Being may wish to 
be served, furthermore, in a manner which cannot become known to 
us through mere reason, namely, by acts in which, by themselves, 
we can see nothing moral, but which we nevertheless perform volun- 
tarilj^ as commanded by Him, or were it but to show our submission 
to Him ; in both of which cases, if those acts constitute a system of 
regulated acts, they therefore establish a service of God. 



384 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

"Now, if both are to be united, either the first one must be assumed 
as an immediate service, or one of the two must .be regarded simply 
as a means for the other, — for the true service of God, for tlie true 
manner in which to please Him. It is self-evident that the moral 
service of God (^offierum liberum') must please Him immediately. 
But it cannot be considered as the chief condition of all God's satis- 
faction with man, if the other service, which may be called a service 
of wages (^offierum mercenarium) , can be regarded as being also 
alone and of itself pleasant to God ; since in such a case no one 
would know what service would be preferable to God in a specific 
case, and would consequently be unable to direct his duties accord- 
ingly. Hence we must consider acts which have no moral value in 
themselves, as being acceptable to God only in so far as they serve 
to promote that which is of itself good in our acts, — that is, morality ; 
or, in other words, only in so far as they serve the moral service of 
God. 

"Now, the man who nevertheless practices acts, which in them- 
selves contain nothing pleasant to God (nothing moral), as a means to 
obtain the Divine, immediate satisfaction, and thereby the fulfilment 
of his wishes, is reputed to be in the possession of an art whereby he 
can produce a supernatural effect by altogether natural means. This 
art is usually called witchcraft; but since this word has also the mean- 
ing of a communion with the evil principle, whereas the art of which 
we speak may be practised, after all, with good intentions, we shall 
rather call it Fetish- worship. But if a man claims that he can pro- 
duce a supernatural effect, he claims that he has a power over God, 
and uses God as a means whereby to produce an effect in the world 
which his own power cannot produce ; nay, which his own insight 
cannot even show him whether that effect will be acceptable to God 
or not. The mere conception of this presumption involves an ab- 
surdity. * * * , 

' ' Priestcraft, therefore, is the organization of a Church, in so far 
as a Fetish- worship is established in it, which is always the case where 
it is not morality, but statutory or canonical commandments, rules of 
faith, and ceremonial observances that form its basis and essence. 
Now, it is true, that there are many Church forms wherein the Fetish- 
worship is so manifold and mechanical, that it seems as if it wei'e 
intended to take the place almost altogether of morality, and hence 
also of religion, and thus approach very closely to the forms of 



THE END OF HISTORY. 385 

Paganism ; but the more or less is of no consequence here, where the 
worth or unworth of acts depends upon the quality of the highest 
uniting principle which prompts them. If this principle demands 
obedient submission to a rule, as a slave-service, and not a free 
acknowledgment, — which is due to the moral law before everything 
else, — then, let the imposed observances be ever so few, it is always 
a Fetish-worship which governs the masses, and by their submission 
to a Church deprives them of their moral freedom. Whether the 
government of such a Church be its hierarchy, be monarchical, or 
aristocratic, or representative, this concerns only its organization ; 
but its operative results will, under all these forms, remain the 
same, — despotic. Where the statutes of faith are counted in as 
belonging to the constitution, or creed, or canonical law, there a 
priesthood (^clerus) governs, which believes that it can get along quite 
well without reason, — nay, after awhile, perhaps, even without 
sacred writings, — since itself, as the only authorized custodian and 
interpreter of the will of God, the invisible Law-giver, has alone the 
authority to administer the prescriptions of faith ; and, armed with 
this power, has no need to convince, but needs simply to command. 

"Now, since, with the exception of this priesthood, all other men 
are laymen, — even the head of the political Commonwealth, — the 
Church in the end rules the State, if not exactly through force, at 
any rate through its influence on |he minds of men, and through its 
magnification of the advantages to be derived from an implicit 
obedience, to which obedience a spiritual discipline has even habitu- 
ated thinking. But, in all this, the practice of hypocrisy imper- 
ceptibly roots out honesty and fidelity in the people, causing them 
to perform their services as citizens of a State also in the same 
hypocritical manner, and thus, like all false principles, results in the 
very reverse of what it was intended to effect." 

Here, then, we have it clearly stated how and why a collision 
between Church and State is always possible, namely, because the 
love of power, alluded to before, is apt to induce the clergy to per- 
vert the minds of the people in regard to their proper relation to the 
State government and the exercise of their individual freedom. The 
first kind of perversion, no government, whatever its form or nature 
may be, can tolerate ; since it leads virtually to a submission of the 
legally constituted government to the control of an ecclesiastical 

25 



386 LIBERTY AND LAW. 

body, claiming supernatural, infallible authority. The darkest pages 
of history have been filled by the wars and persecutions that have re- 
sulted from this conflict between ecclesiastical and civil governmental 
organizations, wherever the former have laid arrogant claim to a 
direct inspiration from the Deity, denied to the laymen. The second 
kind of perversion no republican government can tolerate, because it 
undermines and finally eradicates that freedom of the individual 
which i^ the only support of republics, and which is the essence of 
morality, without which republican mode of thinking and action is 
impossible. To the people of the United States of America it is, 
therefore, of the utmost importance that this second kind of perver- 
sion of the public mind should be made impossible. There are two 
ways in which this can be accomplished. The first is afforded by our 
form of government itself, which, in its circular movement, provides 
for its own defence against its most dangerous enemy, — more dan- 
gerous always in proportion as it is a sneaking, insidiously working 
enemy. A republican form of government, based as it is upon indi- 
vidual freedom, and protecting that freedom to the utmost possible 
extent, necessarily brings up its citizens in the habit of liberty', and 
any attempt to infringe upon that liberty is immediately encountered 
by instinctive resistance. Whereas in other countries the priesthood 
is looked upon as a distinctive, superior body of men, the average 
citizen of our republic looks upoif a clergyman as simply a human 
being like himself, the only difference arising from his chosen voca- 
tion. He has no inborn or acquired privileges as a clergyman, no 
special prerogative to assume authority over those who have chosen 
another vocation, and consequently no more or less authority to fix 
his particular views upon the State government than is enjoyed by 
the lowest citizen, each according to his gifts. So long as this spirit 
of individual freedom is cherished by the American people, there is 
no need to apprehend danger from the encroachment of the Church ; 
but it is essentially necessary for the future enjoyment of this secur- 
ity, that this spirit of individual freedom should be fostered with the 
utmost care and vigilance. 

The second mode is, to awaken the moral freedom within the indi- 
viduals themselves, since morality abhors external authority and blind 
submission to the teachings of others, be they priests or so-called 
scientific authorities. To attain this purpose was the object of my 



THE END OF HISTOKY. 387 

proposed elaboration of our public-school education, so as to make it 
embrace all the faculties and possibilities of the human physical, 
mental, and moral organization ; to "which I may, fittingly enough, 
allude here again, at the end of this book, as the basis and corner- 
stone of our civilization, liberties, and gradual approach to a full 
and free communion with the Deity. For this, after all, and this 
only, is the rational end of the history of our race. 



THE END. 



LIBEETY AND LAW 

OUTLINES OF A NEW SYSTEM OF 

FEDERATIVE GOVERNMENT. 

By BEITTO^ a. HILL. 



S"BC!03^ID J^ISTTD lEl^rLJ^iaG-EID EIDITIOISr. 



PUBLISHED BY 



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Price, in muslin, $1.00; in paper, 50 cents. 



FOR SAI.I: BIT AI.1L, BOOKSEIiliSRS. 



OPINIONS or THE PRESS ON THE FIRST EDITION: 

IFrom the New Orleans Picayune.'] 

The book is well ■written ; the language is compact and clear, and presented with 
great logical force. 

[^From the St. Louis Journal.'] '■ 

Mr. Hill has accomplished a work ol which he may be proud, — a work certain to • 
attract widespread attention; and we may feel gratified that our own city has produced 
a thinker so original. 

\_From the Chicago Tirnes.] . 

It is unquestionably the work of a cultivated mind. * * * Mr. Hill is of the opinion 
that there should be a complete revolution in our National and State governments. Our 
federative republic must be completely transformed in order to become truly federative 
and really republican. * 

IFrom the Philadelphia Age.] 

A very thoughtful contribution to political science ; * * * carefully prepared both 
as to matter and style. * * * The author has fortunately never surrendered his judg- 
ment to any one-sided theory, and his writings, whether they treat of secular or religious 
interests, are equally earnest and impartial. 

(i) 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



[jProm the St. Louis Globe.'] 

This work is certain to produce a sensation in literary circles and a lasting impres- 
sion upon the people. It is the most hopeful book of the century. * * * We believe 
the book is one for the times, as well as for the age, and the author has established his 
claim to be one of the truest friends of humanity of whom we have record. 

IFrom the St. Louis Bural World.'] 

We call the attention of the Patrons of Husbandry, the Sovereigns of Industry, and: 
the Labor Union Leagues to a new and original book, entitled " Liberty and Law united: 
in Federative Govei-nment," by the Hon. Britton A. Hill, of St. Louis. All the problems- 
of those branches of the government now of especial interest to the people — money- 
panics, inflation of national money, redemption of 5-20 bonds, reduction of all classes of 
taxes and tariffs, etc. — are cx-itically examined in this work, and the remedies for all 
the evils, frauds, legal despotisms, and official robbery are carefully and practically 
stated, so as to be thoroughly understood by all. It is one of the most complete and per- 
fect icorlcs on these abstruse questions now in print. 

[^From the St. Louis Bepuhlican.] 

It is evidently a work that required for its production a practical knowledge of law,, 
an intelligent understanding of the machinery of governments., and a deep interest in 
the whole subject. * * * This treatise on "Liberty and Law" may thei-efore be 
regarded as the formulated results of the life work of a successful lawyer, presented 
for the consideration of the future law-makers of peoples who would govern them- 
selves. * * * It is a work worth reading and listening to, and is offered in the best 
interests of republican institutions, which are rapidly gaining ground in the thinking- 
and activity of mankind. * * * Mr. Hill's book is a presentation of facts, fruits that 
the past has borne, and a series of hints and suggestions towards purification from, 
errors, and the highest form of liberty and law under federative government. It is 
clearly and forcibly written, and the various subjects treated follow in logical sequence 
* * * The scope of the work embraces domestic as well as political economy, and the 
book is an honest and effective effort to benefit mankind. 

[_From the Journal of Speculative Philosophy .] 

This most able and scholarly quarterly published in this countiy devotes several 
pages of editorial comment to Mr. Hill's book, from which we extract the following: — 

" It will be noticed by this index that Mr. Hill has discarded the theory of govern- 
ment that limits the scope of its functions to the maintenance of justice among men. 
He would have it also secure social well-being, — nurture, if we may so call it. In the 
current pliilosophical view, the functions of nurture, social combination, and the main- 
tenance of justice are separated, and assigned respectively to one of the three institu- 
tions, — the family, civil society, the State. It is quite evident that within the family, for 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



instance, wherein the perpetuation of tlie race is cared for, a strict application of the 
principle of justice could not be expected. It would destroy the race if one were to 
treat all infants as though they were perfectly responsible beings, and with this view 
were to return upon the consequences of their deeds. Nurture is the shape of a i-ational 
treatment of the race in its infantile years, and nurture is even -the predominating 
feature of the most rudimentary States, — e.g., that of China. Civil society is an orgaii- 
ism whose function is the supply of human wants, — food, clothing, and shelter. In this 
organism each man labors to produce a special product, which he contributes to the 
general store (i.e., sells it in the market), and witlidraws from the genei-al store (i.e., 
purchases in the market) a quantity of special products measured by the value of his 
own contribution. Each worlis for all, an<? all for each. But it is not done after the 
manner which Communism proposes. It is not equal contribution; neither is it equal 
distribution. In the family, however, there is community of goods: the wants of each 
are supplied from the common fund, regai'dless of the source of the contributions to it. 
This is nurture. In civil society, on the other hand, each draws out of the supply cre- 
ated by the combined endeavor of all, only an equivalent of wliat he puts in. Hence 
each man is self-determined, — receives the fruit of his own deeds. It is clear that this 
institution is governed by a principle which would desti-oy the race if it were applied 
within the family, and the infant to receive only what he earned. * * * 

" Right liere comes in the phase of municipal organization and public corporations. 
The labor of the individual in producing special products for the marliet is limited to 
such special products as maj' be exclusively possessed and used by others individually. 
But there are thousands of modes in which the welfare of society can be promoted by 
the application of labor to the removal of general obstacles or to the creation of general 
facilities: the highway, the bridge, the railroad, the canal, the aqueduct, the sewer, the 
useful invention, etc., etc. No single person can consume, entirely, one of such products 
as these. They are valuable to a wliole community and to a series of generations. In 
order that human labor may be applied to such substantial productions as these, there 
miist be some form of guaranty that such labor shall be remunerative; that it shall be 
able to convert into money its present labor, exjiended not for special commodities, but 
for the general good of the community at large, and it may be for the generations that 
are to come; that it shall be able to realize for itself special commodities for such gen- 
eral productive activity. The device invented for this purpose is the chartered corpo- 
ration,— a semi-political, semi-social institution. It is clear that Mr. Hill would absorb, 
if not all, at least the greater part of this sphere into the State itself, and make it solel}' 
political. What is for the public weal shall belong to the State, is the principle set up 
in his book. The public health, the public education, money, highways, — even the 
newspaper, — shall come into the hands of the State. 

"Mr. Hill recommends a national system of paper money, opposes the issue of in- 
terest-bearing bonds by the State, suggests an international clearing-house. 

" Whatever may be said against the interference of the State in the affairs of civil 
society, there is no prospect of preventing such iiiterference. A nation that refused 
would be speedily forced to interfere with and regulate the functions of society, were it 
only to preserve itself from destruction. Mr. Hill sees this fact in all its scope." 



ABSOLUTE MONEY: 

A NEW SYSTEM OF 

FINANCE FOR THE UNITED STATES. 

ByBRITTONA. HILL, 

Author of "LIBERTY AND law:' 

This work is universally acknowledged by the press to be the most complete book 
on modern flnauce now in print. All the phases of the money question, the coin re- 
sumption, the national-banking system, and the national legal-tender system, are fully 
analyzed and examined. The author presents a complete system of national finance 
for the United States. 

What the Republican Presidential candidate thinks of Mr. Hill's work on 
Political Economy. Hon. James A. Garfield on Hill's "Absolute 
Money," in the Atlantic Monthly of February, 1876, p. 223 et seq. : — 

"Absolute Money," that is, printed pieces of paper, called dollars, to be the only 
standard of value, the only legal tender for all debts, public and private, the only circu- 
lating medium. The advocates of this kind of "money," though few in numbers, claim 
the highest place as philosophers. 

The ablest defence of this doctrine will be found in a brochure of one liundred and 
eighteen pages, by Britton A. Hill, published in St. Louis during the present year, and 
entitled "Absolute Money." 

OPIJTIOlSrS ©F THE PRESS: 

l^From the Globe-Democrat.^ 

Absolute Money. Hon. Britton A. Hill's New Work on Finance. "A New System 
of National Finance, under a Cooperative Government." 

It is known in this section of the country that the Hon. Britton A. Hill has for 
some time been engaged in the preparation of a work on national finance. A copy of 
the work came to as yesterday, in the shape of a neat volume of one hundred and 
twenty pages, with tlie imprint of Sonle, Thomas & Wentworth, of this city, as the pub- 
lishers. We cannot give our readers a better idea of the subject and purpose of the 
work than by producing the language of the author in the preface, which we print 
almost entire. 

[Editorial from the Globe-Democrat of July 16, 1875.'] 

Hon. Britton A. Hill's long-expected work on finance is published, and we print on 
the third page of to-day's Globe- Democrat the most important portions of the preface, — 
enougli to show the scope and purpose of the work. Mr. Hill repudiates the term " in- 
flationist," as applied to him, and yet he is the greatest inflationist of them all; but he 
is sensible, logical, and consistent throughout, which cannot be said of those who are 
advocating inflation as a political helper. If inflation is right, Mr. Hill is right; but as 
we are convinced that inllation is wrong, we cannot be supposed to indorse the views 
set forth by Mr. Hill. We shall, however, take occasion to refer to them at some length 
hereafter. Meantime, let all read the extracts which we present to-day. They contain 
more thought and argument than all the stump -speeches which have been made in 
Ohio this year. 

\_From the St. Louis Bepublican.~\ 

A New System of National Finance. By Britton A. Hill, author of "Liberty and 
Law." Published by Soule, Thomas & Wentworth, 208 South Fourth Street. 

In recommending the above work to the attention of our readers, we do not by any 
means intend to commit ourselves to th'e support of Mr. Hill's system of an absolute 
national money, irredeemable in any specific commodity, such as gold and silver, but 
made by act of Congress the exclusive legal tender of the country. But we feel jus- 
tified in recommending this book as the most thorough and exhaustive work on the 
intricale money-question in general, 'and, at the same time, as the boldest and most 
logical exposition of the particular financial problem which the people of the United 
States are called upon to solve within the next few years. 

Price, in muslin, $1.00; in paper, 50 cents. 

A limited iiiiinber of copies for sale by 

BECECTOLD & CO., 

210 Pine Street, ST. LOUIS, MO. 

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